Brecht

BERTOLT BRECHT'S GREAT PLAYS
BERTOLT BRECHT'S
GREAT PLAYS
ALFRED D. WHITE
© Alfred D. White 1978
Softcover reprint of the hardcover Ist edition 1978 978-0-333-21655-2
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be
reproduced or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
without permission
First published 1978 by

THE MACMILLAN PRESS LTD
London and Basingstoke
Associated companies in Delhi
Dublin Hong Kong Johannesburg Lagos
Melbourne New York Singapore Tokyo
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
White, Alfred D.
Bertolt Brecht's great plays
1. Brecht, Bertolt - Criticisms and interpretation
I. Title
832' .9'12 PTZ603.R397Z/
ISBN 978-1-349-03280-8 ISBN 978-1-349-03278-5 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-03278-5
This book is sold subject

to the standard conditions
of the Net Book Agreement
To my wife
Contents
List of Illustrations ix
Acknowledgements X
Preface xi
1 Life of Brecht 1
2 Brecht's Ways of Thought 15
3 Theory and Practice of Brechtian Theatre 24
4 The Life of Galileo 53

(i) The plot 53
(ii) Galileo, science and the bourgeois era 59
(iii) Galileo: split character 67
(iv) The social world of the play 71
(v) The structure and artistry of the play 75
(vi) Language 78
(vii) The play on the stage 82
5 Mother Courage and her Children 85

(i) The plot 85
(ii) The chronicle 91
(iii) War and Marxism 92
(iv) Goodness and virtue 98
(v) Language and dumbshow 101
{vi) The songs 105
(vii) The scenic interpretation of the play 107
6 The Good Person of Szechwan 113

(i} The plot 113
(ii) The parable play 120
(iii) A Chinese play? 122
viii Contents
{iv) The gods and the good 123
{v) The split character 127
{vi) Epic-dramatic techniques 132
{vii) Microstructures 135
{viii) The music 138
7 The Caucasian Chalk Circle 140

{i) The plot 140
(ii) Forerunners 148
{iii) The demonstration play 149
{iv) Narration 152
{v) The social world of the play 153
{vi) Grusha's productivity 156
{vii) Azdak's productivity 159
{viii) The productivity of the communes 163
{ix) Presentation and language 165
{x) Setting and costume 168
8 Assessment 171
Notes 175
Indexes 189
List of Plates
1 Life of Galileo, scene 2: the Doge tries to attract Galileo's atten-
tion (Berliner Ensemble 1957)
2 Life of Galileo, scene 12: Laughton with projection of instruments
of torture (New York 1947)
3 Mother Courage, scene 6: Courage counts stock and curses war
(Berliner Ensemble 1951)
4 Mother Courage, scene 11: death of Kattrin (Wuppertal)
5 The Good Person of Szechwan, street set (Frankfurt 1952)
6a The Good Person of Szechwan, scene 7: Shen Teh addresses the
public (Berliner Ensemble 1957)
6b The Good Person of Szechwan, scene 8: Shui Ta supervises the
tobacco factory (Zurich 1943)
7a The Caucasian Chalk Circle, act 2: Grusha rescues Michael (Ber-
liner Ensemble 1954)
7b The Caucasian Chalk Circle, act 3: the bridge (Berliner Ensemble
1954)
8 The Caucasian Chalk Circle, act 6: Grusha argues with the Gov-
ernor's Wife (Berliner Ensemble 1954)
Grateful thanks are due to Gerda Goedhart for permission to reproduce Plates 7a
and 7b. The author and publishers have been unable to trace the copyright holders
of the remaining Plates, but we will be pleased to make the necessary arrange-
ments at the first opportunity.
Acknowledgements
The author and publishers wish to thank the following who have kindly
given permission for the use of copyright material:
Eyre Methuen Limited, for extracts from 'Brecht on Theatre' by John
Willet, and short quotations from the works of Bertolt Brecht: 'The Life
of Galileo', translated by Desmond Vesey, translation copyright @1960 by
Desmond Vesey; 'Mother Courage', translated by Eric Bentley, copyright
© 1955, 1959, 1961, 1962 by Eric Bentley (original work published under
the title of 'Mutter Courage Und Ihre Kinder', copyright© 1949 by Suhr-
kamp Verlag vormals S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main); 'The Caucasian
Chalk Circle', translated by James and Tania Stern with W. H. Auden,
copyright© (Act 5) 1946 and 1960 by]. and T. Stern and W. H. Auden
{original work published under the title of 'Der Kaukasische Kreidekreis',
copyright © 1954 by Suhrkamp Verlag, Berlin)
Eyre Methuen Limited and Hope Leresche & Sayle, on behalf of John
Willet, for an extract from 'The Good Person of Szechwan', translated by
John Willet, copyright © 1962 by John Willet {original work published
under the title of 'Der Gute Mensche von Sezuan', copyright 1955 by
Suhrkamp Verlag, Berlin)
Suhrkamp Verlag, for extracts from 'Arbeitsjournal', copyright © 1973
by Stefan S. Brecht. All rights reserved by Suhrkamp Verlag, Frankfurt am
Main.
Every effort has been made to trace all the copyright holders, but if any
have been inadvertently overlooked the publishers will be pleased to make
the necessary arrangement at the first opportunity.
Preface
This short book is about a closely interconnected group of Brecht's
plays in which the elements of his greatness appear in their most con-
centrated and complex form, and by which his stature can be measured.
It is not concerned with his development before these plays were written
nor with his verse, narrative, dialogue and theoretical work or with his
other plays except in their relevance to the four plays in hand. This in-
volves no denial of the greatness of much of his other work. Despite
limations of scope and length, I hope this book will however suggest
what made the dramatist Brecht write as he did, how one may approach
his texts and what is to be borne in mind when a production of them
is envisaged. The plot of each play is summarised - not just to help those
who have not yet read or seen the plays, but because absolute clarity of
the story-line is a primary consideration for Brecht. Then an attempt is
made to characterise each play and explore some of its salient features.
My thanks are due particularly to Mr D. Richards for help and advice,
to students of University College, Cardiff, with whom I have discussed
many of the ideas in this book, and to my wife for acting as partner in
many mealtime thinking-aloud sessions and for reading the typescript
and preparing the index.
A.D.W.
July 1977
1 Life of Brecht
Eugen Berthold Brecht was born in Augsburg on 10 February 1898, of
middle-class background. His father, a Catholic, rose during the first
twenty years of this century from a subordinate secretarial position to the
directorship of a paper-mill, and appears- though tolerant of his son's
work- to have been a typical ambitious, nationalistic bourgeois of the
time. Brecht's mother, a Protestant, who died in 1920 after long suffer-
ing from cancer, lived in his memory rather as the passive, tolerant,
rural element. She was the bookish one of his parents, the odd one out
of the family. He seems to have been an arrogant child (though not an
only child), joined in games only when he could be the leader, and was
excused exercise at the grammar-school he attended because of a weak
heart. He had a good grounding in literature and in (Protestant) religious
knowledge. With a group of classmates he spent much time mounting
productions in a puppet theatre. In 1914 he published in the schoolboys'
journal Die Ernte his first drama Die Bibel ('The Bible'), already note-
worthy for its unimpressed attitude to heroism and to the putting of
beliefs above people. In 1914- unsurprisingly, in view of the atmosphere
in Germany at the time- he was affected by patriotic frenzy, but his
general attitude was rebellious, as seen in a speech on German Dynasties
which gained him the lowest possible mark, and an essay of 1916 with
a pacifist theme. He read voraciously- from Shakespeare to Verlaine and
trashy novelettes - and gathered around him a group of literary young
men, of whom Caspar Neher was to remain closely associated with him
all his life: Brecht was intense and faithful in his friendships, though
already prone to let personal rancour rule his dealings with people whose
views he disliked. They shocked the town with torchlight processions,
spent nights out in the meadows, swam, lazed, climbed trees and read
their works to each other. Their leader found it wiser to write about
swimming and climbing trees than to join in. He took up the forename
Bert instead of the Eugen hitherto used, and dressed sloppily as a mark
of revolt against bourgeois standards. His mother sighed in vain over his
foul language and the erotic entanglements which started, by his own
account, when he was 17. After Rose Maria Aman, Paula Banholzer
occupied his attention. His attitude to sex was un-bourgeois, lacking in
2 Bertolt Brecht's Great Plays
the refinements and neuroses typical of our century, 1 but full of natural
zest - and natural egotism. For all his sensitivity towards women, he was
obsessed with keeping his independence: he tried to avoid marriage pro-
posals, pregnancies, and distractions from his literary work, whose
material was his various passions: the contemplation of transience;
friendship; sex; the fascination of the fairground with its swingboats
and peep-shows; water, trees and clouds.
As a student in Munich, from October 1917 on, he registered as a
student of medicine, attended scientific and literary lectures and fre-
quented the theatre. He just had time to study the dramatist and balla-
deer Frank Wedekind in person before his sudden death. When the call-
up -long delayed because of his weak heart- finally threatened Brecht,
he qualified as a medical student for the ambulance service and was able
to avoid the front line. In October he duly became a medical orderly in a
hospital for the war-wounded in Augsburg. What he saw here marked
him for life, though he was assigned to the venereal disease section. He
wrote his first famous poem Legende vom toten Soldaten ('Legend of the
Dead Soldier') - whose catchy presentation of the grotesque excesses
of German militarism (the dead soldier is exhumed and declared fit for
active service) was later to earn him a high place on the Nazi blacklist.
That he sang it to the wounded, and that he was a soldiers' representative
in the short-lived Bavarian Republic after the war, however. may well be
inventions. The complex revolutionary movements of 1918-19 in Bavaria
interested him as instructive adventures, rather than serious politics. He
had left-wing sympathies and was friendly with leading revolutionaries
in Augsburg; but, as yet, violence in revolutions seemed to him as sense-
less as the violence of the imperialist war. He was more interested in
earning money by writing so as to avoid returning to University; he made
contact with Lion Feuchtwanger, the novelist, then dramaturg (literary
adviser, editor and adaptor) of a Munich theatre, who was however just
as prone to exploit Brecht for his own ends as to help him. Brecht was
now prolifically writing poems as a private amusement (some of the more
printable verse of this period appeared as Hauspostille, 'Manual of Piety'.
in 1927), stories and film treatments to make money, and also- with
rather more difficulty- plays. Baal (written 1918. successive versions up
to 1955: all Brecht's plays went through a bewildering series of recast-
ings, restylings. rewritings, alterations to suit particular theatres or
actors- nothing was ever finished) gives- in reaction to the would-be
spirituality of the then fashionable epigones of literary expressionism
and in line with Wedekind's principles- a new earthiness to the theme
of the asocial vagrant poet and lover, which had long been a rather pale
poetic convention. Trommeln in der Nacht ('Drums in the Night', written
1919 and continually altered until its premiere, Brecht's stage debut, in
1922) has its setting in the Spartacist risings of the time, but the typic-
Life of Brecht 3
ally proletarian protagonist turns his back on ideals and violence and
goes home to his non-virgin bride. Some one-act plays of 1919, notably
Die Kleinburgerhochzeit ('The Petty Bourgeois' Wedding') show the in-
fluence of Karl Valentin, a noted Munich comedian whose sympathetic
yet sharp approach to human stupidity impressed him greatly and whose
friend he became.
Germany in the twenties. the Weimar Republic, never really emerged
from the slaughter of World War I which preceded it before entering the
violence which portended its close and the horrors of Nazism. Brecht re-
flects an age which sees life as brutish and basic, people as self-centred
and violent, even nature as uncaring rather than maternal. Even the
pacifism of the age is aggressive; having seen the hospitals of 1914-18,
Brecht was eventually to be willing to espouse a cause which promises
universal brotherhood, to embrace violence in the interests of ending
violence. Willett (pp. 66-74, 88f.) has shown how typical a child of
the twenties Brecht is: in his fascination with gangsterdom, sport, jazz,
the Anglo-Saxon and the oriental, the cabaret, and finally Communism,
he swims with the tide. Even his moods of despondency are typical of an
era when 'no one had enough ego in themselves to do anything', as he
claims in a note describing his rootlessness and shiftlessness, his feeling
of being expendable and ephemeral. when he moved from one furnished
room to another in the early twenties (Tb., 213: c. 1930). Conceptions of
his life and work which see him as unusually aggressive, or riddled with
guilt, or living so unbalancedly that he needed eventually to turn to
Communism as a sort of religious retreat, are seeing him out of con-
text. The portrayals in his work of man as lonely, lost in the mass,
devoid of personal value, are not unique to him. Nor was he unusual
among Weimar intellectuals for his behaviour, particularly in his literary
feuds. A hard-hitting style was in favour from the expressionist genera-
tion on. It did not endear him to people; his friend Walter Benjamin
complains of his aggressiveness about matters of literary taste- but
admits to intransigence himself. 2
From 1919 to 1921 Brecht wrote theatre criticism for a left-wing Augs-
burg paper but was also much in Munich. His diaries are full of drunken
and violent scenes often revolving around sexual jealousy among his
Augsburg circle. Paula Banholzer made him the father of a son Frank
(born 1919, killed fighting for Hitler 194 3). From 1920 he tried to estab-
lish himself in Berlin, a fitter scene for his ambitions. A first visit was
cut short when he retreated precipitately from the apparent dangers of
the right-wing Kapp Putsch. On a second visit he negotiated with pub-
lishers and dramaturgs and was feted as a coming literary figure, but
quickly tired of the febrile life of theatrical and literary circles - and the
lack of firm contracts. He joined forces with another struggling drama-
tist, Arnolt Brannen, to match whose forename he adapted his own to
Bertolt, Nickel-framed glasses gave an ascetic, old-fashioned, pedantic
look which Brecht had affected even as a schoolboy; he now added a
flat cap- an attempt to give his slight and unmemorable physique some
character, and also useful to draw over his eyes so that no one could
see if he was concentrating or sleeping. 3 In due course glasses and cap
were joined by the leather jacket which gave him an image somewhere
between motor-cyclist and Moscow commissar, 4 but was offset by a silk
shirt (often dirty). In 1922 he spent time in hospital suffering from un-
dernourishment, and made a bad start to a producing career by quarrelling
with the cast in a play by Bronn en.
Im Dickicht der Stiidte ('In the Jungle of Cities', 1921-2) is one of
the works showing the fascination for Brecht of America, the land of
action. The squalor and stagnation of German- especially Augsburg-
life disgusted him (Tb. 11: 18.6.20). Impressions of Berlin add to the
characterisation of the city; the plot is a gratuitous fight to the death
between two men of Chicago moving beyond the routine constrictions
of urban life and communicating somehow in the loneliness of the mass-
if only negatively. It has affinities to absurd theatre, but Brecht is actu-
ally turning away from asocial individuality, and the play can be inter-
preted in a social light. In 1922 he was awarded the Kleist Prize and
thus established his reputation. Drums in the Night was produced in
Munich; Brecht assembled a cast and worked with them in bars, in the
countryside, informally, and generally interfered in the production. His
easy way with actresses made Marianne Zoff, a singer, his mistress since
1920, jealous. She was pregnant- their daughter, born 1923. became the
actress Hanne Hiob- and Brecht unwillingly remained in Munich, in-
creased his theatre experience by taking a post as dramaturg with an
index-linked salary- no small point in the inflation era- and married
Marianne, only to drive her mad by his hatred of babies, generosity with
her property and habit of inviting friends to share their tiny flat in the
Akademiestrasse. He insisted (his usual pattern) on freedom to consort
with other women, whilst not allowing her any latitude. They were
divorced in 1927.
In 1924 he produced his Leben Eduards II, an adaptation of Marlowe's
Edward II, in Munich; Brechtian ·theatre begins with this production, in
which in pursuance of an idea of Karl Valentin's soldiers wore white
make-up to show their fear in battle. In the same year he finally moved
to Berlin, where, together with Carl Zuckmayer, he was dramaturg at
the Deutsches Theater, a Max Reinhardt theatre run by Erich Engel, 5
the first producer of In the Jungle of Cities and later of The Threepenny
Opera, with whom Brecht carried on many amicable arguments. 6 From
1927 he worked with Erwin Piscator. Despite his attachment to things
and people that reminded him of Augsburg, a Berlin circle formed. Elisa-
beth Hauptmann became his secretary, translating material from English
Life of Brecht 5
sources. Emil Burri. a young writer and boxer, was his mentor in sport-
ing affairs, then the rage in Berlin; Paul Samson-Korner, a more famous
boxer, lent his friendship to get him publicity; but the only sport Brecht
personally participated in was driving. From 1923 he was in constant
contact with Helene Weigel, the Jewish actress who influenced his later
work more than perhaps anyone else. This unsentimental figure was re-
sponsible for all the organisation which was to allow him to go on work-
ing in his own way through a troubled era. Their first child, Stefan, was
born in 1924; the second, Barbara, in 1930. They married in 1928 (giving
a shock to Carola Neher, another actress Brecht thought much of, and
causing Elisabeth Hauptmann to attempt suicide).
Acquaintance with the prose of sporting magazines helped him to
develop the unemotional blank verse style which is one of his char-
acteristic contributions to German literature; but more public attention
was drawn by ostentatious feuds with such established poets as Franz
Werfel. On all occasions he attacked the pretentious and much-admired
literature of the day and praised detective fiction. Of older writers, only
Feuchtwanger and Alfred Doblin impressed him. Thomas Mann was bol.!r-
geois, subjective, annoyingly patronising- and too successful. Brecht, with
three children to support, struggled financially until a long-term contract
with a publisher, Ullstein, guaranteed him 500 Marks a month. Ullstein
lost heavily on this. So far, Brecht had developed a nihilistic set of
opinions, perhaps more to epater les bourgeois and publicise himself than
from deep necessity. Early defences of communism (such as Tb., 65:
15.9.20) merely show a pose. But a change was coming about. Between
1926 and 1930 a series of studies convinced him that the Marxian an-
alysis of economic and social problems was correct and that a rebel from
the middle classes such as himself should join world Communism and
work for the dictatorship of the proletariat. In July 1926 he noted that
so far he had written plays piecemeal, but if he were to become serious
about writing he would have to make a plan, a system, a tradition, a
style for himself. At least half-consciously, he sets out to become an all-
round author of classical, Goethean mould, rather than a specialist in one
or two genres like his major contemporaries. 7 The material he already
has: 'As heroic landscape I have the town, as point of view relativity, as
situation the influx of mankind into the great cities at the beginning of
the third millenium, as content the appetites (too big or too small), as
training for the public the gigantic social battles' (Tb., 208: late July
1926). The next year he could write that his early plays had been, with-
out his knowing, presentations of material ripe for Marxian interpreta-
tion: 'this Marx was the only spectator I had ever come across for my
plays' (15, 129: Der einzige Zuschauer fiir meine Stucke). That Marxism
answers certain questions is Brecht's main reason for embracing it. What
difference it makes is apparent in the two versions of Mann ist Mann
('Man is Man', 1924-6; revised 1931): in the earlier one the brainwashing
which alters the hero's personality and very identity (perhaps Pirandello
influenced the theme) is already interpretable as an artistic statement
of how hollow liberal theories of the free individual are, but is comical;
in the later one, while still funny, it is unmistakably rejected as part of
a capitalist-imperialist exploitation.
In 1928 Brecht conceived and executed the plan of adapting Gay's
Beggar's Opera, put in much work with Kurt Weill on the music, collab-
orated in the production, and had The Threepenny Opera- his first real
box-office success- on the stage by 31 August. It shows a transition to-
wards putting Marxism on the stage: to equate bourgeoisie and under-
world is radical enough, but no substitute for close social analysis, and
Macheath is more of a rascal than a villain. The production inaugurated
Ernst Josef Aufricht's Theater am Schiffbauerdamm, which with its in-
timate ensemble (Helene Weigel. Carola Neher, Lotte Lenya, Peter Lorre,
Ernst Busch and others) Brecht for a time thought of as 'his' theatre.
The intended successor to the original hit, however, was a mistake, and
Brecht withdrew his name half-way through. By now he was more inter-
ested in a constructive parody of opera, having more relevance to social
themes; this was Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny ('Rise and Fall
of the City of ·Mahagonny', 1928-9). Mahagonny is the urban jungle
again, now based on business, and the only capital crime there is lack of
money.
From about 1929, when Brecht witnessed the bloody dispersal of a
May Day march by the Berlin police, whose president was a Social Demo-
crat, he determines to aid the Communist cause in practical ways, though
he apparently never became a party member. With the rise of Nazism,
he may have looked to Communism's Russian connection as the only
counterweight to militaristic German nationalism. 8 He wrote the Lehr-
stucke- didactic pieces: largely simple, paratactically constructed, stylised
operatic texts on problems in bringing about social advance- for instance,
in Die Massnahme ('The Measures Taken', 1930), the Communist who
does not want to give up his individuality (well-meaning but too im-
pulsive: he is a forerunner of Shen Teh and Grusha in the later plays) in
favour of party teachings on revolutionary method (apparently inhumane,
but thought out as the best long-term answers). Some formal aspects are
influenced by the Claude-Milhaud opera Christophe Colomb, a narrative
and didactic work with ritual elements; and Brecht took the plot of at
least one of his didactic pieces from a No play. 9 Composers Brecht
worked with were Paul Hindemith and then the politically more con-
genial Hanns Eisler. It was the era of agitprop theatre, and like the
hundreds of socialist troupes in Germany at the time Brecht seeks a new
audience in the schools and the trade unions which will be open to his
message. But the plays are not party-line propaganda; they concentrate
Life of Brecht 7
more on problems of belonging to a collective, not on positive aspects.
By and large these texts are for amateurs. But the most brilliant pro-
duct of this period is a play for the professional stage, Die Heilige
Johanna der Schlachthofe ('Saint Joan of the Stockyards', 1929-31). whose
heroine discovers for herself the truth about the exploitation of the
American proletariat and dies proclaiming war on the capitalists. The
play is structured according to the phases of the trade cycle as ascer-
tained by Brecht's Marxian studies. Echoes of the Saint Joan story {Shaw's
play had been staged in Berlin). blank verse forms, and parodies of the
German classics show Brecht's use of the literary tradition. The play re-
mained unperformed in Germany10 until 1959; and Die Mutter {'The
Mother', 1931) could only be put on by young committed actors. not in
an established theatre. It takes a less pretentious approach to the class
war: the heroine learns about Communism and progresses in Leninist
awareness. the audience learns from her and with her; frequent apos-
trophes to the audience and interpolated songs draw attention from the
individual figures to the wider implications. Brecht had by now emerged·
as a Marxist writer, though not as a socialist-realist dramatist plugging
Soviet achievements; with the rise of nationalism the professional theatre
froze him out, and he went into film with Kuhle Wampe, a depiction of
the poverty and hopelessness of many Berlin workers of the time. By now
his circle had crystallised. Elisabeth Hauptmann was intimately concerned
in his discovery of Marxism and of the Japanese N6 play. translated the
Beggar's Opera for him and wrote much of certain of his works. 11 Mar-
garete Steffin researched for him and watched over his Marxist ortho-
doxy; she was the only one of his mistresses with whom he had a
relaxed and leisurely relationship.
Hitler's rise to power meant immediate exile (followed by withdrawal
of German citizenship in 1935) and poverty through loss of royalties.
In Vienna. Helene Weigel's relatives and the critic Karl Kraus helped the
family. In Lugano, Brecht attempted to assemble a circle of kindred
spirits. In Paris. he made some money from the ballet scenario Die
sieben Todsunden {'The Seven Deadly Sins', 1933), which shows how one
gets on in the world by avoiding vice - that is, by being unnatural. Poverty
forced him to accept from Karin Michaelis the loan of a house in Thuro,
Denmark; but before long, with money provided by their parents, he and
Helene Weigel bought a house near Svendborg, the home of the family
for the next few years. Margarete Steffin was in attendance, and Barbara
had been smuggled out of Germany by an English welfare worker. The
Danish theatre showed some interest in the exile's work, though as it
turned out he had little success there. An early visitor was Ruth Berlau,
a Copenhagen actress and Communist, later Brecht's assistant, mistress,
photographer and archivist- important to a writer who in successive
hurried moves left many boxes of temporarily abandoned work behind.
He pressed friends- Hanns Eisler, the aesthetician Walter Benjamin, the
Marxist thinker Karl Korsch- to join him in Denmark, where he had
an extensive working library on Marxism, salvaged from Berlin, to attract
them. Whilst advising exiled anti-fascists not known to the regime to go
back to Germany and work underground, he also respected those who,
like Caspar Neher, simply remained in Germany and kept out of politics.
tacitly denying their socialism.
A visit to Russia in 1932 had strengthened his feeling that this was
the path to the ending of force and oppression, though violence and in-
justice were still found on it. He did not want to live in exile in such a
geographically and culturally distant country, but in 193 5, seeing no pros-
pect of an early return home, went to see whether he could live in Russia.
Piscator was doing so and wanted Brecht to work with him on a Ger-
man-language theatre. But Brecht was unimpressed: the theatre in ques-
tion became a party-line affair with no appeal, the talents of Piscator and
Carola Neher were fallow, his friend Tretiakov was in disgrace and Meyer-
hold, whom he admired, suspect to the authorities. In the next years,
Piscator had to leave Russia, Tretiakov and Carola Neher died in labour-
camps. Brecht, listing friends in Russia whom he knows to have been
arrested or never hears from, is harsh about circumstances there (Aj., 1.
36: Jan 1939). Had he settled there he would have been in physical
danger. Neither the Popular Front period of 1935-7, nor the Hitler-
Stalin Pact- each a compromise with anti-Communist parties, and a
weakening of the party's purity which Brecht as an intellectual could not
be expected to understand- reduced his suspicions of Stalin's politics.
He visited London on business in 1934 and 193 6, and got a contract to
assist with the script of a Richard Tauber film; but all his suggestions
were ignored, and even a £500 fee could not compensate him. In New
York he had frustrations of a different order: the Theater Union planned
to put on The Mother but did not espouse his ideas about presentation.
Travelling to New York at their expense, he criticised everything from the
quality of the cast to the lack of political (i.e. Communist) awareness in
the whole organisation, so that a quarrel was inevitable. Thus in both
capitalist and socialist countries Brecht found it impossible to realise
his theatrical ideas.
With Eisler's help he revised in 1934 Die Rundkopfe und die Spitz-
kopfe ('Roundheads and Peakheads'), a play started in 1929 containing
his materialist interpretation of Hitler's anti-Semitism. There was topic-
ality in the poems he wrote for radio programmes beamed at Germany
too; and he agreed to be a co-editor of Das Wort, a Moscow German-
language literary periodical, though this post gave him no influence. With
little to distract him. he wrote a great deal in the late thirties. Two prose
works. Die Geschiifte des Herrn Julius Caesar ('Mr Julius Caesar's Busi-
ness Deals') and Tui-Roman ('Tui-Novel'), remained weighty fragments.
Life of Brecht 9
In 193 7, moved by the Spanish Civil War (though he refused to go any

nearer to it than Paris, not wanting to be shot at), he wrote a short
propaganda piece Die Gewehre der Frau Carrar ('Senora Carrar's Rifles'):
unable to keep out of the war, the mother unwillingly turns revolution-
ary. This play's conventional structure is a concession to the circum-
stances of the 1930s, which condemned the plays by which Brecht set
most store (basically those written between 1929 and 1934) to be mis-
understood and rejected all over the world. Similar concessions are seen
in Furcht und Elend des Dritten Reiches ('Fear and Misery of the Third
Reich', 1935-8), which uses realistically written scenes for emotional
effect in demonstrating the everyday terror under Hitler. Leben des Galilei
('Life of Galileo') was also written to be practicable on the existing stage.
But at the same time Brecht started the series of Messingkauf dialogues
on the nature of theatre, which codify and develop ideas and ideals that
originated in his practice of the 1920s. He also spent much time study-
ing philosophy and psychology. After the end of the Spanish civil
war, and the Munich agreement, he planned to go to America. While
awaiting visas he and his family (including Ruth Berlau and Margarete
Steffin) were able to move to the island of Liding6 near Stockholm. Two
short plays, Dansen and Was kostet das Eisen? ('How much is iron?'),
written in 1939 for workers' theatres in Denmark and Sweden, use cari-
cature and exaggeration in transposing recent international events to the
personal level. Der gute Mensch von Sezuan ('The Good Person of Szech-
wan') was begun in Denmark, but put back in favour of Mutter Courage
und ihre Kinder ('Mother Courage and her Children'). This was followed
by Das Verhor des Lukullus ('The Trial of Lucullus', 1939), an opera text
on militarism.
The series of great plays, unlike the ones preceding them, present little
overt Communist thought or topical propaganda. Brecht knew that topical
messages date quickly; after 1930 he wrote propaganda plays only if
immediate production seemed likely, and from 1938 is often willing to
write in such a way that even audiences hostile to Communism can accept
the plays- though under the surface his convictions are always present.
The secret of these plays' quality is Brecht's ability, just at the point when
Hitler seems triumphant, even concluding an alliance with the Soviet
Union, to disregard the world situation (at least with the creative side
of his mind) and write plays equally far removed from topicality and from
portentous seriousness. He takes up a perspective of the future, seeing
today if not sub specie aeternitatis, at any rate from the superior view-
point of tomorrow: the attitude evoked in the famous poem To those born
later (9,722; B. Poems. 318). Thus he can be ironic about life in a harsh
era. He sets the plays in distant times or places (personal experience of
anything seems actually to have inhibited him from using it in a play);
and whilst stamped by the experience of exile, none of these plays is (as
some of his best poems are) about exile. Brecht tried to get the plays
performed in Switzerland and America, but until after 1945 it was only
the Zurich Schauspielhaus that actually presented them.
On the German occupation of Denmark and Norway Brecht left
Sweden for Finland, where the writer Rella Wuolijoki accommodated
the family on an estate near Kausala (though Ruth Berlau was excluded
and had to pitch a tent nearby). Mexican visas arrived, but as there was
none for Margarete Steffin, and Brecht had no intention of giving up any
of the women in his life, he stayed put. He wrote Herr Puntila und sein
Knecht Matti ('Mr Puntila and his Servant Matti', 1940), a comedy with
farcical elements set in the Finnish countryside and based on the class
relationships between the indispensable and independent-minded chauffeur
Matti, the irresolute landowner Puntila who is generous 'when drunk and
humourless when sober, and Puntila's daughter Eva who is attracted to
Matti but must make a more suitable match. When Rella Wuolijoki had
to sell her estate Brecht lived in a small flat in Helsinki and worked on
Der aufhaltsame Aufstieg des Arturo Ui ('The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui',
1941), which transfers Hitler into a Chicago gangster setting- and iambic
metre.
By the time visas finally arrived, the safest way to the U.S.A. seemed
to be via Moscow and Vladivostock: so the defender of Communism
travelled the length of the Communist world to embark for capitalist
shores. The fares were paid by the actor Fritz Kortner. 12 Margarete Steffin
had to be left behind in Moscow, to die a few days later of tuberculosis.
On 21 July 1941 the Brecht family arrived in America, where friends
awaited them and a house was ready in Santa Monica, Hollywood. Brecht
hated America's. gold-digging atmosphere, lack of taste and tradition,
commercialised film industry, lack of decent bread, and way of judging
people according to their moneymaking potential. He avoided th~ petty
intrigues of the exiled German community too, except that he kept up his
hatred of Thomas Mann, allying himself with Heinrich Mann and Alfred
Dahlin, who had both been helped by Thomas Mann and both felt put in
the shade by him. Brecht participated in film scripts, losing any illusions
he had about the film industry in the process; from Hangmen also die,
a Fritz Lang film quite unsatisfactory by Brecht's standards, he made
enough to live on whilst writing an adaptation of Webster's The Duchess
of Malfi (194 3-6), in which the actress Elisabeth Bergner was interested,
Die Gesichte der Simone Mac hard ('The Visions of Simone Machard',
1941-3) -a drama after a novel by Feuchtwanger- and Schweyk im
zweiten Weltkrieg ('Schweyk in the Second World War', 1943), a re-use
of Ha~ek's celebrated character in new situations. Though Kurt Weill was
interested in a Broadway staging, the play proved politically unsuitable.
Then came the one great work of the American period, Der kaukasische
Kreidekreis (The Caucasian Chalk Circle). Work on stage plays took
Life of Brecht 11
Brecht out of the Hollywood orbit and into the world of Broadway. Ruth
Berlau had moved to New York and he visited her there in 194 3, when he
met the composer Paul Dessau, who later wrote music for some of his
plays. Ruth Berlau later bore Brecht a son, who however died after a few
days; always a stormy person, she was more than usually difficult and
alcoholised after this.
His son Stefan became an American citizen; but after the end of the
war Brecht was looking constantly at the German situation, hoping in
vain that after Hitler's defeat the workers would at last create a German
revolution. He was active in a broad-left organisation, the 'Council for a
Democratic Germany'. His main work was discussing a new version of
Galileo with Charles Laughton, who then played the lead in it in Beverly
Hills and New York (1947). Brecht wanted to return to Europe, but not to
either part of a Germany demoralised by Hitler, devastated by war,
demolished by reparations and divided by the allies - unless he got good
offers and the use of a theatre. Plans to try a start in Switzerland were
accelerated in autumn 194 7 by a summons before the House Committee
on Un-American Activities to answer charges of Communist leanings; he
took refuge in vagueness, loss of memory, perverse interpretations of his
writings produced in evidence, and the fact that he had never been a party
member. A day later he was out of Senator McCarthy's reach on a plane
to Europe. In Zurich he met Caspar Neher again, and at Chur had the
opportunity of producing a play as practice for a return to Berlin; he
adapted Sophocles' Antigone for the purpose (1947). Helene Weigel
played the lead; Ruth Berlau made a photographic record of the per-
formance usable as a model or pattern for further productions.
He did not go to Berlin until invited, arriving in the Eastern sector on
22 October 1948 to produce Mother Courage in the Deutsches Theater.
He did not underestimate the difficulties; acquaintance in Zurich with
actors who had spent the Nazi period in Germany had shown him they
had learnt nothing from the catastrophe and had developed a style of
acting which carefully avoided all contact with realities. There was also
mistrust between the writer and the authorities, but preliminary agree-
ment was reached for the establishment of a standing company- the
Berliner Ensemble- under Helene Weigel's management. Back in Zurich,
Brecht applied for an Austrian passport, in order to be able to travel
freely in both parts of Germany, and also thinking of working at the re-
formed Salzburg Festival as well as in Berlin. He gained Austrian citizen-
ship in 1950, but the outcry there when it became known made him
finally give up the impracticable Salzburg idea. So he settled in Berlin
and tried to get other prominent artists to do likewise and form a group
of kindred spirits. The Berliner Ensemble was opened on 12 November
1949 with Puntila- his new play on the Paris Commune of 1871, Die
Tage der Commune ('The Days of the Commune·, 1948-9) was thought
politically too advancedY The theatre was not yet the territory of a
Marxist proletariat, but a cultural tradition which the government sup-
ported without elan and whose audience was basically middle-class.
The Ensemble opened up sources of support among the masses- taking
theatre to the workers by touring productions to factories and encourag-
ing works trips to the theatre, usually combined with discussions between
the working population and the theatre staff. Productions included some
of Brecht's adaptations of the classics- Lenz, Hauptmann, Moliere; new
East German plays; and Brecht's own writings. The second generation of
Brecht's team was trained and developed- notably the directors Benno
Besson (later at the Deutsches Theater, Berlin), Manfred Wekwerth (chief
director after Brecht's death) and Peter Palitzsch (later in West Germany).
Brecht also adapted plays by Shakespeare, Anna Seghers and Farquhar to
improve the repertoire.
Having returned to Germany aware that many of the attitudes which
led to the rise of Hitler survived, and having returned to East rather than
West Germany in the hope that this was the progressive, if not perfect,
German state, Brecht gave much time to propaganda for peace and Com-
munism, in speeches, open letters, poems and discussions. But he also
had continually to defend his art and ideas against a fossilised party
orthodoxy; and even when the result of such arguments did not dis-
please him (he and Dessau altered the condemnation of war in The Trial
of Lucullus to except wars of self-defence, in deference to political pres-
sures), they added to his unease, shown in an increasing need to be right
in every argument, if necessary by shouting the opponent down. He might
attack the party bureaucracy - but did not allow his assistants the same
freedom. 14 When he and Eisler planned reworkings of Goethe's Faust
showing the bourgeois side of the great German hero, Walter Ulbricht
personally condemned their ventures. In the early fifties the party de-
manded more production from workers and artists, but not on lines
Brecht could agree with. The independently thought-out productions of
the Berliner Ensemble existed, for some years in a vacuum; many people
Brecht would have liked to work with went West. When the govern-
ment's stress on more production (and less reward) led to the rising of
17 June 1953, Brecht's view that there were indeed grounds for discon-
tent was neutralised by his fear of American provocation and interven-
tion. A letter of his to Walter Ulbricht, attempting a balanced view, was
published in a truncated form which made it seem an uncritical acclama-
tion of the party. Though bitter, Brecht used the following period of com-
promise to encourage the reform of the cultural organisations in East
Germany; with the formation of a Ministry of Culture headed by his friend
Johannes R. Becher, he gained better official support. His last play,
Turandot (1953), has little to do with previous versions of the theme,
but is bound up with the Tui-Novel, satirising the intellectuals in capital-
Life of Brecht 13
ist and other states who prostitute their brains for money and influence.
He still had female company. Helene Weigel continued to fascinate
him as well as being the indispensable organiser. Ruth Berlau was in-
creasingly dependent on him, liable to alcoholic depression and capable
of spectacular attacks of jealousy. Kathe Reichel was a young actress to
whom he gave special attention on and off stage. Kathe Riilicke was in
favour, and finally there was Isot Kilian. The last two years of his life
were outwardly successful: established in a model theatre, he was hon-
oured in various ways in East Germany and Russia and had great success
in Paris with The Caucasian Chalk Circle. But the reception of his work
in East Germany did not satisfy himY Even the official record admits that
in the early fifties the work of the country's most famous dramatist 'could
not become accepted without conflicts' (nicht ... durchzusetzen war). 16
Influential critics had condemned him as decadent when they found no
spontaneous rising of the masses in Mother Courage; and attacked him
for being too traditional, or not traditional enough, or not compre-
hensible enough to the masses (as if they knew best what could be put
across). He was patronised as a non-party-member who couldn't quite
keep up with the party aesthetic line. 17 A high point of official uninterest
was reached when the party organ Neues Deutschland disregarded the
premiere of The Caucasian Chalk Circle. Brecht also begrudged the time
wasted in public activities and retired as often as possible to work in
his country house at Buckow. He died of a heart attack on 14 August
195 6 after suffering the after-effects of virus flu for some months.
Though within his own circle Brecht made no secret of his feelings,
he was reluctant to bare his private life to the public at large. He
stylised himself and lived behind fa~ades: the angry young man, the com-
missar, the sage. Autobiographical elements in his literary work are few:
even his poems do not allow one to build up an image of Brecht the
lover. The way he regulated his love-life by contracts excluding inoppor-
tune claims for his undivided attention gives the impression of coolness;
yet passion sent him across the American continent to face Ruth Berlau's
ungrounded suspicions and jealous scenes. His work shows the same
unpredictable blend of coolness and passion; and the loves of his mature
life were all women associated with his work. Similarly, a surface flippancy
covered feelings: when alone, but only then, he might sit uncomfortably
and leave his cat the best place on the sofaY He embraced the intellec-
tual paradox of supporting the use of force for peaceful and useful ends;
he thought of himself as a creature of opposites, quoting with obvious
involvement a statement about Delacroix: 'In him a warm heart beat in
a cold man' (Tb., 186: 10.2.22). Moods of melancholy could take him
to a state of depressive near-schizophrenia worthy of a Hofmannsthal
(Aj., 2,681: 31.8.44); but in general he was always active, and never
spent an idle quarter of an hourY A diffidence born of a feeling that he
ought to be able to cope with people and things (mich zurechtfinden)
better than he in fact could (Tb., 215: 1931) did not prevent him wishing
to triumph over mankind by being 'allowed to do what is right, without
scruples, harshly' (Tb., 209: 1927). Such Nietzscheanism is seen in his
private life in his not suffering fools gladly (he could be repellent to
people he suspected of stupidity or uncongeniality), and in outbursts of
temper when he felt let down by poor work from his collaborators. His
life was too short, fragmented and passionate to allow him to gain seren-
ity: yet, as we shall see, it was an important ideal for him.
2 Brecht's Ways of Thought
The young Brecht hated Bolshevism as being too orderly and regimented
(Tb., 61: 12.9.20). His intellectual attitudes were undisciplined: he
doubted his ability to keep to a single philosophical system (Tb., 32:
24.8.20). The less rigid and more meditative quality of oriental thought
had more appeal to him; he discovered an affinity with Lao Tzu as soon
as introduced to his work (Tb., 66: 21.9.20). Oriental aspects can be
seen in such poems as Of swimming in lakes and rivers (8,209; B. Poems,
29), where the individual progressively abandons himself to the influence
of water and becomes an aquatic object with no will of his own to
contradict nature. A nihilism or cynicism typical of the twenties is also
visible. His early works show a keen sense of the morbidity of nature
alongside the wish for communion with it; 1 the nauseating and the
attractive are not separated. Similarly, a sharp awareness of man's pro-
clivities to exploit and terrorise man does not exclude a romantic wish
to see mankind brought closer to perfection. Marxism is a means to that
end.
He describes (Tb., 221: 1935) how, where the German upheavals of
1918-19, Eisenstein's films and Piscator's theatre had not made him turn
to Marx, he was forced to recognise the nature of capitalism when he
wanted to use the wheat-exchange of Chicago as the background for a
play. Finally he got the impression: 'From every viewpoint except that
of a handful of speculators this grain-market was one big morass. The
planned drama was not written, instead I began to read Marx . . .'
(20,46: Der Lernende ist wichtiger als die Lehre). This reading never
means sinking himself in the attitudes of the Communist party: he still
has his own development, his attitudes and idiosyncracies; and he con-
tinually checks Marx against contemporary reality, as suggested in the
poem Thought in the works of the classics (9, 568; B. Poems, 269). His
thought always directs itself to the solution of his personal problems as
man and author. Truth is for him, in a truly Marxian sense, concrete.
'By years of practice he had made himself incapable of understanding
bloodless abstractions at all'. 2 Marxism and Communism satisfy Brecht's
curiosity as to what makes people and societies work, and his humani-
tarian impulse. There is no evidence for supposing he embraced Com·
munism as a mother surrogate or as an authoritarian organisation which
would absolve him from having to exercise rational self-control and make
decisions of his own- psychoanalytical explanations used by presumptu-
OU'S critics to propagate the view that Communist beliefs are something
to be explained away rather than taken seriously. 3 Had he so deeply
wanted to lose himself in a mass he could not, as he did, have coolly re-
garded himself as a bourgeois who happened to have espoused the pro-
letarian cause (Aj., 1, 143: 5.8.40). Marxism's attraction for him is that
of reason, not of belief. 'The moment Brecht realised there was another
way to improve conditions in the world than the discredited religious and
ethical nonsense, he embarked on this humanitarian path and followed
it with exemplary steadfastness. This was not the choice of a religion,
but the finding of reason.' 4
For our purposes Marx's thought is that of the early and middle periods.
Brecht was certainly familiar with the political economy of Capital, but,
for the plays we are to consider, this is not called on. Brecht tends to
provide a critique of parts of the superstructure of bourgeois ideology -
family, science, charity, religion- more than he looks at the economic
substructure. His models of capitalist society are, from the viewpoint of
Marxian economics, very simple. Even Saint Joan of the Stockyards,
dependent on Marx for its whole structure, only uses the circulation
sphere; The Good Person of Szechwan involves only the primitve capital-
ism of the manufacture stage. Marx's characteristic thought as relevant to
us may be summarised (following his sketch in the Preface to A Contri-
bution to the Critique of Political Economy) as involving the tenets (1)
'that legal relations as well as forms of state are to be grasped neither
from themselves nor from the so-called general development of the human
mind, but rather have their roots in the material conditions of life'; (2)
that the economic structure of society is based on relations of production
which men enter into with each other- relations corresponding to the
stage of development of production and not dependent on men's free
will; (3) that the economic structure of society is 'the real foundation,
on which rises a legal and political superstructure and to which corres-
pond definite forms of social consciousness'; (4) that material life con-
ditions social, political and intellectual life- 'it is not the consciousness
of men that determines their being, but, on the contrary, their social
being that determines their consciousness'; (5) that material productive
forces, as they develop, demand changes in the relations of production
and property between men; (6) that these changes come about in a social
revolution, whereby the new material conditions. having developed within
the existing society, change the economic foundation and consequently
the whole superstructure; (7) that 'the bourgeois relations of production
are the last antagonistic form of the social process of production; at the
Brecht's Ways of Thought 17
same time the productive forces developing in the womb of bourgeois
society create the material conditions for the solution of that antagon-
ism.'
This world-view is a materialist use of historical dialectics as developed
by Hegel. for whom history is a flux of contradictions seen as analogous
to philosophical concepts (theses). Theses are to Hegel not independent,
but automatically engender their opposites (antitheses). From thesis and
antithesis proceeds a synthesis, which combines them without really
superseding them. In history. the universal synthesis is the self-realisa-
tion of the harmonious world-spirit. Marx interprets the flux of contra-
dictions as a succession of kinds of society which alienate man - that
is, force people to sell their labour and renounce the values it creates,
thus alienating them and inhibiting their free self-development as in-
dividuals. The synthesis he replaces by the concept of man's freeing
himself from alienation by revolutionary practice which removes contra-
dictions.
To Marx revolutionary practice is a subjective category (Theses on
Feuerbach, I). To Lenin, however, only matter exists, and our perceptions
only reproduce it; so nature and history are objectively dialectical.
Brecht scorns this view as too simple. He developed his Marxism in dis-
cussion groups dominated by the theoretician Karl Korsch, and, sharing
his opposition to Stalinist orthodoxy, 5 sees Marxism more as science
than as philosophy and more as method than as dogma: a tool for inter-
preting the movement of history and criticising bourgeois society, not a
unified world-image or complete system, still less a statement of Utopian
historical ideas to be realised (20, 152: Dialektik; 16, 531: Was den
Philosophen auf dem Theater interessiert; M. Dial, 36; cf; Engels, Letter
to C. Schmidt, 5.8.1890). 'Scientific socialism is not at all concerned with
the painting of a future state of society.' 6 It is a theory of conflict. Class
struggle is central to Marx's and Lenin's view of society as it so far
exists. Brecht too shows a world in which man is a wolf to man, a mar-
auder, selfish and grasping. 7 This can be changed, eventually, by the
means taught by Marx - the revolutionary change of economic relation-
ships; but there is nothing simple about this, and one must continually
re-examine the present state of society, which is changing all the time
in its dynamic flux of contradictions. Marx charges one to see all things
dynamically, according to the principle of change. 8 Brecht follows Marx
closely, is a connoisseur of the progressively shifting interactions of the
various components of society, and points out how the same phenomena
can be unitary in one context and contradictory in another. 'in nations
the proletariat sees things fighting against one another; as a unit it
sees them as against itself, the proletariat. only recognition of their
unitariness and disunitariness allows it a reasonable political line'
(Aj .• 1, 86; 31.1.40). Or, concretely concerning Germany in 1918-19:
the SPD, i tried to explain, had precisely that amount of power that
the allies and german imperialists allowed it and procured for it. -
'and why did they not grasp more power?' he said.- 'there was a
certain fear of revolution', i said .... it is continually impossible to
make circumstances in germany clear to people who have not heard
of at any rate two theorems of dialectics, the one about opposites
acting as a unit and the one about the leap from quantity to quality'
(Aj., 2, 720).
Dialectics here is a means of analysis allowing the common interests of

apparently opposed parties to be recognised, and also an explanation
of the discontinuity of history. For Marx, we have seen, the new con-
ditions ripen within the old. A given order of society can contain the
consequences of its development up to a given extent, beyond which
they must assert themselves in a revolutionary movement changing the
society- but before that extent is reached no revolutionary movement
could succeed. Only the quantitative accumulation produces the qualita-
tive leap.
Marx had ideas, based on the situation at various times of his own
life, on the probable course of the social revolution. He altered these
views as history developed. For Brecht to stick to Marx's final views,
the best part of a century later, would have been undialectical. He be-
lieved that capitalism would be ended by crises and unemployment- re-
jecting Marx's pauperism theory. 9 If Brecht had around 1930 a phase of
starry-eyed acceptance of the inevitability and closeness of the victory
of the proletariat and the withering away of the state, the experience of
Hitler and Stalin did away with it and made Brecht develop a longer
time-scale incorporating the possibility of short-term reverses; his private
concept of 'gedewei' (Geduldserweiterung, extension of patience) was
much needed from 1933 to 1953. In any case, describing the Communist
state is something to which Engels is more prone than Marx (the wither-
ing away of the state is best described by Engels, in Chapter III of
Socialism: Utopian and Scientific). Brecht too holds back with unambigu-
ous results, preferring hopeful travel to arrival, 10 doubt to certainty. 'one
chinese picture roll THE DOUBTER' has first place in an inventory of his
possessions (Aj., 1, 73; 8.12.39). He concentrates on change and unlike-
ness, not stability and harmony; he contradicts himself freely; he knows
his name will be forgotten when changes in the world have made his
work oudated (9, 562: Warum sol! mein Name genannt werden?); he
does not believe perfect relationships between people are possible in any
conceivable society, for he can see no possible end to dialectical develop-
ment and contradiction.U
This is the approach of a playwright, whose chosen genre is based on
contradiction and struggle. Beyond the age of thirty or so most play-
wrights need an intellectual structure to allow them to write the plays
they still have in them, and Brecht found the structure of the Marxist
dialectic most congenial. The Marxism of his plays is in the underlying
attitudes, the dialectical structure, rather than in superficial content or
in any following of the Communist aesthetic line. The basic structure,
furthermore, involves certain directions of movement in his dramatic
work. Some, perhaps most, writers are unable to deal with social ques-
tions until they have sorted out matters of individual belief, and for them
the personal is primary, the social something to move towards. Brecht is
of the opposite type: he cannot deal with individual matters until the
social aspect is secured. The didactic and other plays of his early thirties
concentrate on the social and his adaptation to a particular way of
viewing it. The plays we are more concerned with here build on this
foundation and move back towards defining the place of the individual
within its structure.
Brecht, unlike his friend Korsch - who had been excluded from the
Communist party in 1926- was not content to confine his Marxism to
theory; the Soviet Union is after all 'the first workers' state in history',l 2
':heoretical criticism automatically means an impulse to practical improve-
ment. In the practical field Brecht was impressed by Lenin's combination
of theory and pragmatism. 13 Marx is indeed close to pragmatism in the
philosophical sense, believing 'In practice man must prove the truth, that
is, the reality and power, the this-sidedness of his thinking' (Theses
on Feuerbach, II). Only concrete applications can allow one to judge of a
philosophical theory. Brecht was fond of the English proverb. 'The proof
of the pudding is in the eating.' The dialectic is fed not by abstruse
philosophical considerations, but by real cases (Aj., L 85ff.). Theory and
practice are inseparable. So if Brecht was suspicious of Korsch's lack
of enthusiasm for practically changing society, he was equally opposed
to the unintellectuality of the Stalinist party line. Korsch led him in
opposition to Bolshevisation- the extension of the Moscow line to Com-
munist parties outside Russia. 14 Brecht demands a Marxism of equal
intellectual rigour and practical effectiveness. 15
He joins issue with Stalin about the nature of the superstructure:
culture has for him, as for Engels (letter to J. Bloch, 21.9.1890), its own
history independent within certain limits of the substructure, and can
anticipate the substructure's future or try experiments about it (20, 76-8:
Thesen zur Theorie des Uberbaus). So the demands of socialist realism
as formulated by A. A. Zhdanov in the thirties - the veristic or mimetic
reproduction of a real milieu recognisable to the recipient, the moral
demands for equality and justice attached as a message, the inevitable
rosy revolutionary future- are alien to him. His work has to lay bare
dialectical processes at work under the surface, and to encourage thought
(not just moral feeling) about social change as a historical phenomenon.
Only thus can it have a function and influence reality. And for this it
needs to use discursive and allegorical treatments. The apparently philis-
tinic views of Georg Lukacs on realism, holding up Balzac as a timeless
ideal, seemed to Brecht and a few others (such as Ernst Bloch) to con-
demn official Communist art to sterility. 16 He was forced to explain that
he was against socialist realism because he was for socialism and for
realism. 17 He even defends expressionism: Toller's unrealistic plays
opened many people's eyes to social realities. The effect, not the means,
counts. Anger at inhumane conditions can be awakened in many ways,
by presentations in objective and in imaginative form; art participating
in the struggle of the working class needs formal principles derived from
that struggle, not from bourgeois models (19, 293-5: Praktisches zur
Expressionismusdebatte; 19, 327: Volkstumlichkeit und Realismus; B. on
Theatre, 110; 19, 380: Dber sozialistischen Realismus). Class awareness
is a necessity for critical revolutionary practice - and in the Popular
Front period Brecht felt Lukacs did not possess it (Aj., 1. 13: July 1938)
and was too inclined to compromise with the bourgeois.
Orthodox Marxism has difficulty in accommodating anything in-
determinate or apparently subjective: not only non-mimetic art, but
quantum theory in physics and mutation theory in biology. Brecht on
the other hand took readily to quantum physics. His acceptance of its
philosophical implications as a refutation of determinism- seen in various
notes from his American period- has, in dealing with society, the impli-
cation that while we can make forecasts on the basis of statistical prob-
ability no individual fate is quite determined. So past historical events
were not inevitable. Chance played a part in struggles which were often
dose-run. Future movements, of individuals and masses, are also not
completely foreseeable. The relationship of mass and individual is a
fruitful source of tensions for Brecht: the individual's decisions are
important, and real, and the sum of individual decisions makes history.
Rigid Utopian ideas of whither the dialectic of history is tending are
dismissed. Scope is allowed for the imagination: the individual can pro-
duce something new and alter the world.
The keen eye for contradictions is a prerequisite of humour as well as
of dialectics (14, 1460: Fliichtlingsgespriiche XI). Brecht is reported to
have opined that the Russian and the Italian soldiers were the best in
World War II: 'they know what they're fighting for.' 18 The dialogue
form is important too: dialectics originated as the art of finding truth
through conversation. Philosophical dialogues from Plato through Galileo
to Diderot fascinated Brecht, who uses the form himself at the time
of the great plays in Fliichtlingsgespriiche ('Refugees' Conversations')
and the Messingkauf: the arguments between different figures may end
in a consensus, but not in a forced harmonisation which would make
any of the participants give up his individuality. The fascination of the
oriental for Brecht is another source of a certain detachment. Brecht
worked on adapting Mo Di (MI! Ti), in whose writings the concepts of
Yin and Yang, the universal duality, and their harmonious interwork-
ing, first appear. 19 The balance of opposites may be seen in his life and
work in this among other ways: whilst his activism as a Communist is
perfectly serious and wholehearted, it is balanced by serenity vis-a-vis
the events of life (Hermann Hesse's ideal too, in Steppenwoln. This
serenity appears in his life- though never for long; for instance, in the
ability to write Puntila whilst tensely awaiting the outcome of the
Battle of Britain; and in his work- in many exile poems as implicit
negation of the single-minded hatred shown by many other opponents
of Hitler. In The Mask of Evil (10, 850; B. Poems, 383) he regards with
sympathy the swelling veins which show 'what a strain it is to be evil'.
Serenity also helps to explain the difference between Brecht's great
plays and the work of many engaged writers, unable to look dispas-
sionately at their beliefs and always tense in their attempts to con-
convince. For him, 'the simplest [leichteste] way of living is in art'
(16,700; Kleines Organon §77: B. on Theatre, 205). Another point where
Brecht uses oriental ideals is for what the Marxist classics do not dis-
cuss: personal relationships on a smaller scale than the grand move-
ment of history. 'That doctrine deals above all with the behaviour of
great masses of people . . . But in our demonstrations we'd be more
concerned with the behaviour of individuals to one another' (16, 530:
Messingkauf, Was den Philosophen auf dem Theater interessiert; M. Dial.,
35). For this field Brecht- disinclined to borrow Christian concepts of
neighbourly love - develops the Chinese idea of deep politeness. Lao
Tzu wrote the Tao Te Ching only because he was too kind to refuse a
poor stranger's request for a precis of his beliefs (Legend of the origin
of the book ... ; 9, 660; B. Poems, 314). The beliefs are seen as socially
progressive too: there is a synthesis of Marxism and Eastern gentleness.
The major failure of Brecht's dialectics is a tendency to see ideologies
and modes of social organisation other than Communism as mere varia-
tions on a theme. Capitalism, parliamentary democracy and fascism are
seen as intimately connected (Aj., 2, 823: 16.3.48). Hitler becomes simply
the finest flower of capitalism (Aj., 1, 262: 14.4.41), Nazism the continu-
ation of bourgeois domination only by more nakedly violent means.
This view does not allow Brecht to cope with the problem of anti-Semitism
in the Third Reich.
Just as Brecht's theoretical Marxism is the result of independent
thought, so his view of the practice of Soviet Communism is unblinkered.
He firmly believed that international Communism was the only viable
way to social justice and equality, and the Soviet Union the guarantor
of its viability- having made life much better for millions, even if it
had not produced all conceivable social improvements (Aj., 1, 82: 26.1.40).
He points out that the western concepts of individual freedom and of
democracy are tainted by association with capitalism and competition,
and other criteria of a society are thinkable. In a state where the masses
possess the means of production and no one is allowed to use his talents
to exploit others, perhaps new kinds of personality develop (19, 437:
Kraft und Schwiiche der Utopie). It is the tremendous social advances
in Soviet Russia that justify Brecht's serene optimism about the future
despite Stalinist terror. Esslin (pp. 275f.) claims that Brecht continually
proves despite himseH that human nature is violent and bad. He forgets
that for millions in Russia, and for Brecht, the liberation after 1917 from
feudal restraints, exploitation and insecurity was a constant proof of
the opposite. The failings of Communism, the show trials and purges
under Stalin particularly, disquieted Brecht. In private notes he compares
the party bureaucracy with that of fascism (Aj., 1, 307: 27.10.41) and is
very hard on the excuses given for Stalin's invasion of Poland in collu-
sion with Hitler (Aj., 1, 65: 18.9.39). But publicly, looking at Soviet
Communism in the global context, he always found it possible to sup-
port it rather than any capitalist system, to express solidarity with it and
support Stalin's right to defend its achievements as he saw fit (20, 111-5:
Uber die Moskauer Prozesse). 20 Similarly he reacted to the Berlin rising
of 1953 by supporting the disaffected workers but doing nothing that
might make the Socialist state less secure.
The mistakes of Communist governments are for Brecht no reason
for returning to capitalism. Rather they are an impetus to work harder
for more Communism, for the freeing of each person from alienation and
the enabling of everyone to spend his working life producing materially
or intellectually in the way best suited to his personality.21 Brecht's
emphasis on production, or productivity, starts very early (20, 49: Muster-
ung der Motive. junger Intellektueller). Productivity is, for Brecht as for
Marx, important for the future of Communism and the self-realisation of
the individual. Marx looks forward to a phase 'after the enslaving sub-
ordination of the individual to the division of labour, and therewith also
the antithesis between mental and physical labour has vanished; after
labour has become not only a means of life but life's prime want; after
the productive forces have also increased with the all-round development
of the individual .. .' (Critique of the Gotha Programme). Brecht, re-
jecting the intensification of division of labour under Stalin, defines Com-
munism as 'a great production' rather than 'a great order', its struggle
as being 'of the freeing of the productivity of all men from all chains',
the products being 'lamps, hats, musical compositions, chess moves,
irrigation, complexion .. .' (Aj., 1, 247: 7.3.41). Here he is following his
theatrical collaborator Erich Engel, who in 1928 had said that all in-
tellectually productive workers had 'to make sure that when once the
poor enter into possession of the means of production they do not just
enter a new grey monotony (Trostlosigkeit) as state labourers with no
meaning to their existence'. This (together with some thoughts on the
role of intellect and imagination in the Marxist system) is proof of a
striking affinity between Brecht and Engel. 22
Moral progress is dependent on social progress, individual liberation on
mass liberation. Once society allows people to help each other rather
than compete, they can relax and become serene. In a discussion of Com-
munism in Refugees' Conversations Ziffel says: 'It is quite sufficient if
you say a community should be so organised that what is useful to the
individual is useful to all' (14, 1465). A higher egoism is reached through
acceptance of the community.
3 Theory and Practice of
Brechtian Theatre
Brecht's early theory of theatre is consciously one-sided, in rebellion

against German theatre around 1920, 'in which bombastic productions
of the classics alternate with empty photographic replicas of real life' ,1
and against the last two German literary and theatrical movements -
naturalism and expressionism. His mature theory is only the link be-
tween general tenets of his Marxism and alterations in his theatrical
practice; not a complete theory of theatre. 2 The Short Organum is his
only systematic statement on theatre; also important are the Messingkauf
dialogues (16, 499-657; M. Dial.) and the notes on individual plays and
performances (17, 943-1296}.
At the beginning of Brechtian theatre is enjoyment (Spass), never quite
ousted by the more sedate 'entertainment' (Unterhaltung). His early
cynicism leads to healthy suspicions of the pretensions of grand tragedy;
from the 'inertia of matter' and the 'inadequacy of all things, including
ourselves' Brecht prefers to wring enjoyment, as do the comedians Karl
Valentin (15, 39; Karl Valentin) and Charlie Chaplin. At the end of his
life again he demands a spectator capable of 'enjoying himself in a
sophisticated manner' (sich differenzierten Spass zu bereiten).S His notes
on Mother Courage close with an apology for any over-seriousness and
an avowal of intent to amuse (Mat. C., 80}; his productions of his own
works show this intention at work. But enjoyment also means, from an
early stage, that the spectator exercises his intellect on what as a stage
action seems strange and incomprehensible. 'The "chaotic" which stimu-
lated our naiver intelligence to bring order into it was our true element'
(15, 81: Uber das Theater, das wir meinen). A similar appeal to the
spectator's reason is found in the theories of the expressionist play-
wright Georg Kaiser, whom Brecht saw as a precursor. 4 From the stimula-
tion of the intelligence, Brecht is able to move to the presentation of
political contents. Ideological drama is nothing new. Brecht remarked
that medieval mystery plays and the Jesuit theatre of Austria showed
didactic tendencies, making them too his forerunners. He wants to deepen
the audience's understanding of certain events seen in the past, and this
Theory and Practice of Brechtian Theatre 25
depends on his taking up a perspective outside these events which
determines his choice of material.~ For him this perspective is a social
one; so his enjoyable intellectual art is to appeal to material and social
interests. In a stratified society great art will serve and appeal to the
interests of only one social layer (Schicht) (15, 91£.: Uber die Eignung
zum Zuschauer).
The approach of socially committed naturalism, as in some plays of
Gerhart Hauptmann, whose emphasis on reproduction of a confined
reality allows full sympathy for the oppressed to arise but scarcely has
room for analysis of the wider social factors, is no longer sufficient for
Brecht, once he sees with Marx (Theses on Feuerbach, III) that economic
and social processes must not be presented as unalterable and fated, ex-
ternals that no individual can escape, but rather as produced by people
and capable of being modified by people. Naturalism describes the misery
of today, not of hope of tomorrow; it is 'ersatz realism' (Aj., 2, 780:
30.3.47). It cannot show the wider scene, though more suitable for
immediate propaganda than is the theatre Brecht has in mind. A school
of left-wing theatre which has more appeal for Brecht, though still not
satisfying him, is the 'epic theatre' of Erwin Piscator in the twenties,
which uses bold technical experiments such as the marrying of film and
stage action, lavish technology, a strong left-wing message put over
directly in the text and the whole style of presentation, and the over-
riding of conventional dramatic action among individuals by the showing
of large-scale political developments. Brecht supported Piscator when
he was attacked for political bias, and he first uses the term 'epic theatre'
at this point and in Piscator's sense (15, 104: Uber die Volksbuhne). It
is the example of Piscator's attempt to run a left-wing theatre that leads
Brecht to analy'>e the commercial theatre as a means of production, in
the hands of capitalists and thus resistant to any new directions involv-
ing social change. 'The cry for a new theatre is the cry for a new social
order' (15, 172: Uber eine neue Dramatik). His first major independent
statement on epic theatre (1927) already has a socially committed line
(influenced by the sociologist Fritz Sternberg). demanding a new style to
rejuvenate the whole repertoire (not just something for new plays), which
will be part of the ideological superstructure for the effective real social
shifts (Umschichtungen) of the present; will embrace acting, stage tech-
nology, theatre music and use of film, as well as dramaturgy; and 'appeals
less to the feelings than to the spectator's reason. Instead of sharing an
experience [miterleben] the spectator must come, to grips [sich aus-
einandersetzen] with things. At the same time it would be quite wrong to
try and deny emotion to this kind of theatre' (15, 172: Betrachtung uber
die Schwierigkeiten des epischen Theaters; B. on Theatre, 23, but I have
altered the translation). Where Piscator was concerned to confront in-
dividual fate and general political development, to reproduce reality on
the stage, to give the spectator an emotional experience, and to make
propaganda, Brecht soon saw the limitations of this development of
naturalism, and wanted to make his protagonists representative of social
development, to represent (not reproduce) reality in distanced ways. and
to allow an intellectual experience leading to a critical attitude. Rather
than simply activising and fomenting revolution, he wants to take a
long-term view, to adopt the perspective of the rising proletariat- what
has been called his plebeian standpoint; 6 to invite the workers to think,
learn, recognise their existing social position and formulate ideas for its
revision. The Mother, a play centred on the Russian revolt of 1905, epito-
mises this. Brecht wants to encourage tpe revolutionary activity which,
according to Marx (Theses on Feuerbach, I) is practical-critical activity.
Turning a tragic attitude on its head, the spectator says 'the suffering
of this man shatters me, because there is after all a way out he could
take' (15, 265: Vergnugungstheater oder Lehrtheater; my translation,
fuller than B. on Theatre, 71). Criticism extends, then, to the behaviour
of the dramatic figures as well as to the author's way of dealing with
reality. Brecht has always wanted this, starting with the debunking of the
current repertoire. In the intervals of a tragedy, he suggests, clowns
should appear, bet on the outcome, refer to the hit of the week, and
instruct the stage-hands: 'He's on his way out now, you know. Tum the
lighting down!' (Tb., 45f.: 1.9.20; 15, 51). This is to draw the public's
attention towards the substance: 'Hang it all, the things should get
criticised, the plot, the words, the gestures, not the execution' (ibid.).
Any similarity to Dadaism is merely passing: after holding current culture
up to ridicule, Brecht soon feels the need to present an alternative.
Criticism remains a constant. Shaw is praised for his cold-blooded attitude
to important phenomena, 'because it is the only one that permits com-
plete concentration and real alertness' (15, 97f.: Ovation fur Shaw; B. on
Theatre, 10). The material is primary. the aesthetics secondary. Theatre
is above all a democratic institution trying to give the audience enhanced
possibilities of visualising and performing changes in the world. 'The
philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways; the point,
however, is to change it' (Marx, Theses on Feuerbach, XI). 'The theatre
became an affair for philosophers, but only for such philosophers as
wished not just to explain the world but also to change it' (15, 266:
Vergnugungstheater oder Lehrtheater; B. on Theatre, 72).
A critical attitude does not necessarily mean that the theatre attacks
the state in which it finds itself. Eastern theorists have claimed the
German Democratic Republic needs no critical theatre; Western ones that
since Brecht held fast to the concept of criticism even in East Germany,
he cannot have been a loyal communist. Both have failed to grasp the
point. Criticism allows ways of improving the good, as well as of eradi-
cating the bad, to be seen and practised (16, 671; Kleines Organon §22).
It means mainly putting reason to work. All ideologies presumably believe
in working against war; Brecht's specific view is that no one can learn
to overcome the irrational charms of aggressiveness from a play which
merely shocks him and does not also put reason to work against un-
reason. Wekwerth (p. 280) rightly tells us that theatre of cruelty can get
a shock effect from showing physical horror, but that it is more meaning-
ful to go back to the origins of the horror and present to the audience's
understanding the mechanisms of social alienation.
For the philosopher who wants to forecast and to influence human be-
haviour, theatre is a source of examples, 'models' (16, 509f.: Messing-
kauf, introductory dialogue; M. Dial., 13f.). For Brecht, people who think,
and who are presented with a new vision of capitalist society showing
its outdatedness, must take sides in the social struggle, and further
thought will impel them towards Communism - unless their class bonds,
their interest in the continuation of exploitation, are too strong. Brecht
never claimed he could convert the class enemyl 7 Rather, he accepted
that his plays would split the audience into camps by class interests. He
does not want to celebrate (like the expressionists) some sort of uni-
versal brotherhood, easily used as a cover for continuation of the status
quo, exploitation and so on.
His is a practical theatre, a means to an end; its beauty must spring
from function, from its role in the business of living. 8 Nothing could be
more alien to it than an aesthetic experience as an end in itself. But,
from the mid-thirties on at any rate, Brecht tries not to reduce theatre
to a series of dry-as-dust demonstrations. To see possible improvements
for the world, to hope for their realisation, to plan them, to realise
something of what makes the world what it is and of one's own role
(real and potential) in important processes- these are enjoyments, and
theatre is called on to make them possible and to surround them with
more specifically aesthetic pleasures. Learning, Brecht points out, can be
a pleasure, provided it is not merely buying knowledge in order to resell
it later (15, 266: Vergnugungstheater oder Lehrtheater; B. on Theatre,
72); so 'Theatre remains theatre even when it is instructive theatre, and
in so far as it is good theatre it will amuse' (15, 267: same essay; B. on
Theatre, 73).
As Brecht- still following the Theses on Feuerbach- sees revolutionary
practice materialistically, he reacts sharply to the charge of wanting
simply to update Schiller's idealistic notion of theatre as a moral in-
stitution. 'We were not in fact speaking in the name of morality but in
that of the victims. These truly are two distinct matters. for the victims
are often told that they ought to be contented with their lot, for moral
reasons' (15, 271: same essay; B. on Theatre, 75). He finds other than
moral grounds to be against hunger, cold and oppression; other ways
than preaching to remove these evils. The lesson of his plays is never
a moral. but a statement about society made in the hope of encourag-
ing change. Such statements of Brecht's stress the importance of economic
factors in human behaviour to a degree unmatched even by German
naturalism.
All plays and films have lessons - if only lessons about how to hold a
fork. They project to the audience a view of life, human nature, and
cause and effect. These views may be cliches, even dangerous. The spec-
tator is brought to share certain feelings of the persons appearing on
the stage and thereby to approve them as universally human feelings, only
natural, to be taken for granted. They need not always in fact be correct,
universally human, natural feelings' (15, 430: Lohnt es sich, vom Amateur-
theater zu reden?; B. on Theatre, 150, but without the last sentence
quoted here). Brecht works against this partly by encouraging the feelings
he finds preferable - those which help transform the nature of human
interrelations (16, 678: Kleines Organon §35; B. on Theatre, 190); but
largely by his opposition to the spectator being made to share feelings
of the stage figures.
I hope to have avoided in 'Baal' and 'Jungle' a great error of other art:
its attempt to carry the spectator with it [mitzureissen]. I instinctively
leave distances [Abstlinde] here and see to it that my effects (of poetic
and philosophical nature) remain limited to the stage. The spectator's
'splendid isolation' [in English in the original] is not violated, it is
not sua res, quae agitur, he is not lulled by being invited to empathise
[mitzuempfinden]. to incarnate himself in the hero . . . There is a
higher kind of interest: that in the parable [Gleichnis], the Other, the
Confused [Unubersehbaren], Strange' (Tb., 187: 10.2.22; 15, 62).
From the outset Brecht turns against the spectator's self-identification

(empathy, Einfuhlung) with the great personage in favour of the spec-
tator's interest in the course of events, against a quasi-mystical. quasi-
hypnotic mass emotional experience in the theatre in favour of cool
awareness that the effects produced are stage effects. This is the basis of
his theory of distancing (Verfremdung), which has been translated by
'alienation' and 'estrangement'- both words with undue negative con-
notations- and literally means 'making strange'. Our term 'distanCing'
is analogous to the well-tried, clear and suitably neutral French term
distanciation.
Conventional stage illusion is created by two techniques: the imitation
of reality on the stage, and a quasi-hypnosis which induces the spectator
to suspend his knowledge of the unreality and improbability of what he
sees. Illusion is often destroyed by techniques which draw attention to
the unreality of the stage by altering the perspective: presenting two
levels of stage 'reality' (the play within a play or deception within the
action), planting actors in the auditorium and thus loosening the division
between stage and audience, and so on. Brecht's destruction of illusion
by distancing is radically different because it refers the stage action to the
public's reality. The world of the stage no longer claims autonomy, and is
'merely' an act put on for the public, but continues to claim truthfulness
and relevance. The actor shows himself as actor, but as a real person-
say Charles Laughton; not as a stagey actor hamming a part. In Brecht's
world there is not the conventional agreement to suspend disbelief, for
there is no consensus about any metaphysical reality which it would be
right and proper for the actor to hypnotise the audience into sharing
with him. The actor is only an individual who demonstrates on stage the
special cases of other, fictional individuals. There are no morals to be
handed down with the voice of authority, only suggestions as to how to
see things. 9
Distancing of one kind and another was discovered, or rediscovered,
by others at about the same time. Brecht was aware, for instance, of
Pirandello's Six Characters in Search of an Author, produced in Berlin in
1924. 10 The term Verfremdung itself appears in his theory relatively late,
apparently a fruit of his visit to Moscow in 1935 and the influence of the
Russian formalists. The precise importance of the Russian connection is
still much discussed; 11 but Piscator and Brecht were working on lines
analogous to Russian developments long before the Russian term (ostran-
enie: showing the familiar as if seen for the first time) appears in Brecht.
About 1930, Brecht had combined his anti-illusionistic techniques, worked
out to keep the audience alert and critical, with a socially orientated
dialectical interpretation of the procedure of distancing. The Russian
example had been important: Sergei Tretiakov for the use of documents
about the social revolution in such a way as to inform the audience as
well as inflaming it; Meyerhold for the fostering of non-naturalistic styles
of acting to the point of grotesquerie and for accuracy of work-processes
presented- both seen in Brecht's Berlin production of the revised Man is
Man; Mayakovsky for the emphasis on the theatrical work of art as a
product (the concretised work of certain people, and a step in the general
social process of production) and on the dialectics of history; all of them
for political and social commitment. It was lucky for theatre history that
Piscator and Brecht were able- after 1945 -to keep alive elements of a
Soviet tradition which in Russia was stifled by Stalin and the hegemony
of Stanislavsky's theories and practice.
With Verfremdung comes the Verfremdungseffekt or V-effekt- 'v-effect'
seems an innocuous translation. This is any technique which allows stage
action to be turned into food for thought by being made to seem strange
and even forced: 'one which allows us to recognize its subject, but at the
same time makes it seem unfamiliar' (16, 680: Kleines Organon §42;
B. on Theatre, 192). Where the critical spectator is given leisure to be
intellectually aware that he is not watching a reproduction of empirical
reality, some v-effect or other must be present. The socio-philosophical
aim is to sow doubt in the spectator's mind. Conventional patterns of
looking at things, always present in the twentieth-century audience, 12
are broken down in favour of naive, unprejudiced modes of vision, things
we take for granted presented in a new light. Particularly at the end of
his life Brecht develops the category of artistic naivety, 13 a return to a
healthier, deeper level in our responses to life. What has always been
thus and is familiar to us need not always be thus, rather it is odd that
it has for so long been accepted unquestioningly.
Marx likes to examine the economico-social system of his time as
something inorganic: though aware that, in fact, it grew, he is interested
only in using and changing it, not in its past. In Brecht, seeing things
in the present without trying to show organically how their contra-
dictions came about leads to the montage principle: elements of present
reality are juxtaposed so that their contrasts are apparent, but no ex-
planation is offered. In effect, our experience is broken down into com-
ponents which we see laid bare, stripped of our habitual harmonisations.
It is left to us to reconstruct the relationship of the work of art to
empirical reality, at the same time discovering the criticism we can apply
to our previous view of that reality. Clearly this dissociation attaches
Brecht to general trends of modern art. He at once recognised in Picas-
so's Guernica the affinity to his own procedures (Aj., 1, 117: 24.6.40).
Similarly Engel had described dialectical materialism as a quasi-artistic
concept, because its analysing power breaks up empirical reality and
allows it to be properly assessed.H
Paradoxically connected with this breaking-down of reality is the
principle of historicisation. Again pointed disregard of the past is the clue.
Our tendency if we look at the past is to interpret it in terms of the
present. Giving the present such importance lends it, or rather our
usually blinkered view of it, a spurious naturalness. To counter this
Brecht suggests historicisation, looking at 'a particular social system
from another social system's point of view' (16, 653: 2. Nachtrag to
Messingkauf; M. Dial., 103), to show just how much of the present social
system is accidental and thus alterable. The present contains contra-
dictions which doom it to change. What seems obvious from today's
viewpoint is not necessarily eternally true. This concentration on dynamic
contradictions. potential change, means looking at things from a dia-
lectical angle. 'When a material is subjected to the examination of
dialectical thought, it distances itself. ' 1 ~ A simple instance of this principle
at work is the argument in proverbs or quotations- found in Mother
Courage. Galileo and The Caucasian Chalk Circle. Long-accepted wisdoms
turn out to contradict one another and must be reconsidered and evalu-
ated afresh.
Since to Brecht it is self-evident that the critical attitude is basic
to social change and should therefore be fostered in the spectator, and
since in his view only a theatre of distancing encourages criticism, he is
generally convinced that his theatre is the only true social theatre and
that empathy is politically undesirable. By pulling the spectator into
a mass experience, the conventional theatre - including most Communist
theatre- works like a Hitler rally, and so empathetic theatre is damned
even if its aims are politically correct: one goes the right way on one's
own two feet or not at all (16, 563-7: Messingkauf, Uber die Theatralik
des Faschismus). What can be felt in the theatre is not enough: the
audience needs critical knowledge.
Emotion is allowed to exist in Brecht's theatre, though subordinated
to reason. The plays are not 'ice-cold intellectual exercises'.16 The state-
ments that epic theatre narrates (rather than embodying) an action,
works with arguments (instead of hypnotic suggestion), investigates
man (rather than taking him for granted) and so on do not exclude
emotional responses at all; and they only show 'changes of emphasis'
compared with conventional dramaturgy (17, 1009f.: Anmerkungen zur
Oper 'Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny'; B. on Theatre, 37). 'Every
thought that is necessary has its emotional counterpart, every emotion
its rational counterpart' (A; .• 1, 31: 12.9.38). Brecht had a phase of
trying to limit (not to abolish) emotion, but repudiates it later in favour
of the full, earthy presentation of life (A; .• 1, 180: 25.9.40). There re-
mains a difference from most modern writers, who, with Freud, think they
can explain nothing apart from the sexual urge; Brecht, with Marx, thinks
he can explain nothing without socio-economic forces. Love and sex are as-
pects of human We alongside others, interesting mainly in their social
effects, not as wellsprings of sensational psychological complexes. What
Brecht does oppose is emotions forced on the members of the audience by
self-identification with a hero- emotions which may be contrary to their
real interests as they would see them if they were invited to think.
Brecht cites the film Gunga Din as having made him feel an emotional
bond with the British - imperialist I - soldiers and scorn the Indian
'natives', despite his intellectual rejection of such attitudes (15, 430f.:
Lohnt es sich, vom Amateurtheater zu reden?; B. on Theatre, 151). The
emotions he wants are rational emotions- basically, ones with a de-
finable role in today's class struggles. The individual figure on stage is
less important than the class or mass. The audience's attention is to be
given to the class, which cannot be accurately represented on stage, by
the accurate presentation of the individual, who however is not a mere
representative of the class. The audience must not identify with the
atypical individual, but be enabled to consider what stands behind him
(15, 242-5; Uber rationellen und emotionellen Standpunkt and Thesen
uber die Aufgabe der Einfuhlung). The spectator's and the character's
emotions may then diverge: we may be able, for instance. to see more
of Mother Courage's predicament than she does herself, to be sad-
dened even where she is happy. Such critical emotions are vital to epic
theatre. But these effects cannot be guaranteed by the text alone: a
check is required in the form of acting techniques. Empathy leads to
acute 'emotional infection', 17 which interferes with the critical attitude,
breaking down barriers between protagonist and audience (and between
actor and role; Brecht is very suspicious of Stanislavsky and method
acting). It thus encourages what he sees as the weakness of naturalism
and post-naturalist theatre by imposing on the spectator the same
limited view of life that the protagonist - passive in the grip of social
circumstances and the existing order- has. In his last years. when
opposition to existing theatre practice is less important, Brecht shows
magnanimity toward empathetic approaches; he sets up a dialectic of
Einfuhlung- Ausfuhlung. feeling-in and feeling-out. 18 The actor has
attributed to him a fruitful tension of demonstration and empathy
(16, 703: Nachtriige zum Kleinen Organon).
Much of Brecht is reminiscent of comedy. Tragedy imposes itself on
the spectator. makes him acquiesce in its laws. invites him to feel with
a figure subjected to an inevitable catastrophe, works with such powers
as death, fate, and divine intervention: comedy does not involve in-
evitable catastrophes or irreversible supernal interventions, and does
not suck the spectator into its slipstream, but allows him to remain
superior to the action and engage in laughter and criticism. sympathy
and Schadenfreude, and pleasurable learning. But there must also be, in
a good literary comedy, something the spectator will feel seriously
affected by. Either he sees a world familiar to him (identification) but
subjected to criticism which he is to take to heart (distance); or an un-
familiar world (distance) in which familiar relevant moral problems occur
(identification). A typical comic element is the situation in which one
or more figures trick or deceive others and the audience shares the
secret. The general stage illusion is perforated by a second illusion not
shared by the spectator (and dissoluble at any time without permanent
ill-effects). Also typical are disguises, changes of role, masks, use of stage
tricks for their own sake, caricature, grotesquerie. parody. excess of all
sorts, overflowing vitality. large gestures. Apostrophe to the public breaks
through stage illusion as needed and makes the spectator a partner in
the action. Dialect or uncultured language allows the audience to feel
superior and aids distancing. But a certain pathos and seriousness
furthering empathy are also useful: the more the spectator is dialec-
tically torn between serious involvement and laughter, the better the
comedy.
In this view of comedy much coincides with Brecht. Even in his
gloomiest plays he retains laughter and criticism. the feeling that nature
and the fate of the protagonist are not deterministically fated and un-
alterable, the dialectical alternation of distancing and empathy. Galileo's
manceuvres with the telescope are obvious comic trickery; decep-
tion and disguise are the root of The Good Person. used with Pir-
andellian gusto, turned into a spectacle in their own right. Azdak in
The Caucasian Chalk Circle is a figure of overflowing comic vitality.
Brecht's exploration of such obsessive characters as Galileo, Shen Teh
and Azdak is reminiscent of Moliere. He caricatures: amuses us by comic,
exaggerative, distancing, critical representations. 19 Brechtian comedy
is rooted in his intention to make drama a tool in the productive criticism
of the existing order, and Theaterarbeit deals {pp. 42-5) with 'the social
Comical' as the comic aspects of class-divided mankind: basically, the
comedy of the bourgeois as perceived by the rising proletariat. For Marx,
the comic treatment of the ideology of a declining era is the last stage
of its treatment, when it has already been mortally wounded by serious
opposition. 20 Brecht uses this in connection with Puntila: the age of the
landowner being past in East Germany. the audience can sit back and
laugh at him. One can hold the bourgeois world up for sympathy (the
tragic approach), or attack it satirically, or show it as objectively out-
dated and comical - Brecht mentions these three approaches quite clearly
very early on (15. 55£.: Zur A.sthetik des Dramas) and singles out the comic
approach as the neglected one. the one needing to be worked on. There
is no need to preach against the bourgeois world. mobilise moral oppo-
sition to it, or present its conflict with that which is replacing it. It is
simply laughed off the stage; the public need only keep its distance
and be brought to a cool recognition of the basic ridiculousness of what
is presented. This relaxed intention is very different from the intention
of satire, which battles with a still dangerous opponent. In practice the
division between serene comedy and satire is not always clear; and under
the pressure of Hitler Brecht also sometimes has to fall back on a differ-
ent kind of humour, associated with Schweyk: laughter as a private self-
assertion against an overwhelming and hostile reality which one dare not
oppose directly. But as a general aim Brecht has the comedy which buries
the past and holds a wake over it. An example of an aspect of bourgeois
existence consistently so treated by Brecht is the wedding. From the
early one-acter The Petty Bourgeois' Wedding to The Caucasian Chalk
Circle, the fine words bandied about at weddings are shown as comically
unrelated to reality, which is a contract for exploitation. sex, food, money.
Brecht thought sexuality in late bourgeois society comical because of
the gap between ideology and reality and the fact that a different society
could cure this {2, 489: Anmerkungen zur 'Dreigroschenoper'). Grusha's
wedding is farcical, but Brecht does not forget to emphasise the social
reality: 'Woman hoes the fields and parts her legs. That's what our
calendar says' (2059; 56; 4). In The Good Person a comic entanglement
comes about in that Shui Ta cannot be where Shen Teh is- but the
fact that both are needed has the serious implication that Shui Ta, who
holds the purse-strings, is at least as important to Sun as his bride is.
The demonstration of the power of money balances the comic elements,
but Shui Ta is not satirically attacked.
Brecht has little sympathy with tragic views of life. 'Tragedy is based
on bourgeois virtues, draws its force from them and declines with them'
(Tb., 131: 28.5.21). Yet where he looks closely at particular epochs he
sometimes takes up the tragic attitude, notably in The Measures Taken
where the well-meaning protagonist jeopardises a progressive venture
by personal weakness; in the analogous situation of Galileo; and in
Mother Courage's inability to escape from the vicious circle of war and
business. Yet she is not caught up in processes beyon~ her grasp: she
brings about her own downfall by her decisions and what she is
caught up in could be altered, if not by her, then by society as a
whole. So sympathy for her is not enough, we must remain critical.
The balance of sympathy and criticism in Brecht is rarely grasped by
critics. Soviet critics were dismayed by Brecht's unsentimental 'revolu-
tionary analysis': they wanted 'revolutionary optimism'21 even if it
meant a glaring inconsistency and the grafting on of a popular rising or
suchlike at the end. Westerners, on the other hand, often refuse to see
the concept of social alterability, and so see only the tragedy of a situa-
tion which they see as representative of the human condition. But to
Brecht the tragic features, the sympathy with the declining bourgeois,
are secondary; the comic ones, the perspective of the rising proletariat,
primary. What is horrible in the play is not necessarily tragic from such
a superior viewpoint; when seen from a future perspective, it is cut down
to size. The play-may not come to a happy end, but one can posit a happy
end beyond the end of the play.
Since Brecht's theory originated in the revolt against the existing
stage, he labelled it anti-Aristotelian. He polemicised against the canon-
ised ideas of drama loosely associated with Aristotle, rather than against
Aristotle himself. He sought replacements for the cathartic emotions
of fear and pity: he suggests desire for knowledge and readiness to help
(Aj., 1. 198: 15.11.40). But he was closer to Aristotle than he thought;
Ronald Gray (p. 83) quotes from Humphry House an interpretation of
Aristotle which Brecht could have subscribed to in all main points. To
define him as anti-Aristotelian means lumping him together with Claudel.
Beckett and other strange bedfellows. Similar confusion surrounds the
terms of the later theory, 'theatre for a scientific age' and 'dialectical
theatre'. Both mean theatre basing itself on the philosophical and socio-
logical insights of Marx, attempting analysis of reality and thus con-
structively entertaining people who are used in their daily life to taking
up critical and progressive attitudes (16, 671: Klei~~tes Organon §21£.;
B. on Theatre, 185). 'Dialectical', used by Brecht with a smile, 22 has the
advantage over the paradoxical 'epic theatre' of offering no targets to
hostile critics. Another term, 'inductive', emphasises opposition to the
deductive logical and dramaturgical procedures associated with Aristotle.
To cut through all this Kiithe Riilicke-Weiler suggests the term 'Brecht-
theatre', and one can but agree. Brecht himself, who rarely wrote a
theoretical essay for its own sake but criticisms, polemics, descriptions
of stage techniques and the thinking behind them, disliked the impres-
sion of dogmatism given involuntarily by his writings. His conversation
gave a 'more tentative and lively, and less grandiose' impression than his
writing. 23 He thought his theories should be examined only in connec-
tion with his stage work. The critics should look first at his theatre,
one, he hopes, 'imbued with imagination, humour and meaning', and then
use his theories to help analyse its effects. The theories were meant only
as hints at the proper performance of his plays (16, 816: Katzgraben-
Notate, Episches Theater; B. on Theatre, 248).
Brecht took an interest in sub-literary theatrical genres; the fair-
ground puppet-shows of Germany (Kasperltheater- comparable to Punch
and Judy) were favourites of his, as were early silent films (Aj., 1, 50:
4.5.39). But his plays (like Wedekind's) are no less literary for this;
rather (like Shaw when he rejected pretentious dramatic forms for the
techniques of the popular theatre) he is giving literature a shot in the
arm by widening its range. Another useful technique is adaptation of
the corpus of world dramatic literature. As a young rebel Brecht de-
manded the rejection of all the established classics, but the saving of
their plots for their intrinsic value (15, 106: Materialwert). Adaptation
also involves parody- as with Shaw, whose attitude to the classics and
popular plays of the English stage has much in common with Brecht's.
Both want to make the audience think and judge for itsel£. 24 In this
process. the audience's recognition of literary structures and phrases it
knows in one context, re-used in another, aids the work of historic-
isation.
Brecht develops a literary style which depends neither on the artificial
Buhnendeutsch of the classical German stage, a language of purity and
lifelessness nowhere found in common speech, nor on the naturalistic
imitation of a particular dialect such as Hauptmann's Silesian. The
abstraction of the former is avoided by returning to an earlier attempt
at universally comprehensible German, the language of Luther's Bible;
the particularising effect of the latter is rejected, South German features
being used only to give added earthiness, not local colour. Pithy proverbs
and apophthegms, Anglicisms, puns, all serve to make truth more con-
crete.25 The rhetorical parallelisms of the Bible, the rough-grained verses
of the popular stage, the strident rhythms of Kipling, are juxtaposed -
but not mingled. The language is by turns stilted, parodistic, poetic,
vulgar, to draw attention to the incongruences of the content. 20 The
language of a play need not follow a single convention, realistic or
otherwise. Brecht avoids too harmonious language, just as he avoids pre-
mature resolutions of dialectical conflicts. Often he works from gesture
to language, asking first how a person would move in a given situation,
then how he would speak. The result is expressive and, so as to repre-
sent the true patterns of gestic speech, ungrammatical. 'Ego, poeta Ger-
manus, supra grammaticos sto.' 27 But his universal aspirations also em-
brace elevated language. If one writes for the sovereign people, one may
claim the language of sovereigns as fit to describe the struggles of the
masses and fit to be presented to them on the stage (9, 740£.: Die
Literatur wird durchforscht werden; B. Poems, 344f.).
Brecht's early ideas of the place of the protagonist in drama are not
only positively influenced by the plot-orientated sub-literary genres, but
also negatively influenced by pretentious types of literature such as the
grandiose tragedies of Hebbel, patterned on quasi-Hegelian concepts of
the workings of the world-spirit. 'That chaps of a certain particular
structure get hit on the back of the neck with a shovel is not what the
play ought to show. It ought to show how they behave under it, what
they say about it and what face they make' (Tb., 31: 21.8.20). The early
diaries are full of plans for such stories. A positive literary model is in
the early novels of Alfred Di:iblin; Brecht praises Wadzek's Struggle with
the Steam Turbine (Tb., 48: 4.9.20). Later, detective novels, which Brecht
read insatiably, are a useful parallel: the action is primary, the motives
are obscure and must be deduced from the evidence.
Whether the protagonist is the primary element or not, Brecht is
always fascinated by the riches of individual character, admires in-
dividuals' stature and energy, and puts on stage rounded human beings
with quirks and development. 28 According to Brecht, reported by Bern-
ard Guillemin in 1926- following ideas of the mutability of personality
which come from Ernst Mach and entered literature with Hofmannsthal
in the 1890s- 'nobody can be identically the same at two unidentical
moments. Changes in his exterior continually lead us to an inner re-
shuffling' (most accessible in B. on Theatre, 15). In drama as in life, char-
acters will contradict themselves. Not all need be explained: a Richard
III, for instance, must retain the fascination of the monstrous (15, 194:
Situation und Verhalten).
Early protagonists tend to be outsiders; but growing social commit-
ment leads Brecht towards the insider-protagonist, a member of a social
group who develops in an exemplary fashion (Brecht's version of the
'typicality' demanded by Communist literary theory) because of his
particular openness to stimuli. Increasingly Brecht writes of proletarians
or people who find something in common with the workers, and are thus
important to society and its development. Thus Johanna Dark (Saint
Joan of the Stockyards) abandons her allegiance to religion and capital
after being impelled to search for the root causes of social misery. Gen-
erally the protagonist is an ordinary person- and even for Galileo, many
problems boil down to how to pay the milkman; but not a copy-book
proletarian, for rich rounded ·characters with complexity and self-contra-
diction are often those who stand between the classes and thus astride
the great social conflict described by Marx. 'How is the "ownness" of
the individual guaranteed? By his belonging to more than one collective'
(20, 62: Individuum und Masse). Impelled by a fixed aim incompatible
with their social state, they want to live off war without being cruel
(Mother Courage), to give away money without earning it by exploiting
others (Shen Teh), to explore the universe without defying the author-
ities (Galileo). The type is prefigured in the sketched story of one Malvi,
'a good man, who had one passion: one expensive mistress: the idea of
going straight. She brings him to beggary' (Tb., 52: 5.9.20). They are
led into dilemmas which are the psychological manifestation of social
conflicts, put up against the manifold contradictions of an imperfect
society; they find it impossible to fulfil all their responsibilities, they
adapt or perish, they become model cases of the sociai behaviour of the
well-meaning person. 'the individual remains an individual, but becomes a
social phenomenon, his passions for instance become social matters and
his fate too' (Aj., 1. 139: 2.8.40). The split individual is a model of a
split society: bourgeois and proletariat, the old and the new fight within
him (9, 793: Looking for the New and Old; B. Poems, 42f.). Brecht
discovered the technique of the unresolved internal contradiction in
Shaw (15, 99: Ovation fur Shaw; B. on Theatre, 11). The two sides of the
individual distance each other: Shen Teh shows up Shui Ta's unscrupu-
lousness, he her ineffectuality. Most characters act hypocritically in order
to save their ruling passion intact against social pressures: Schweyk,
Galileo, Azdak. 29 They are acted on by society, in its economic, social
and political aspects; and they act on society and make it what it is. As
they collect a quantity of motivations on their way through life, they
steer towards a qualitative change where external influences force them
into a decision- most obviously, Kattrin finally sacrificing herself to her
passion for children at the siege of Halle. Such decisions are real dia-
lectical turning-points, and Brecht demands that on stage the alternative
course of action be made visible as a possibility. The concept of a fate
against which individuals kick in vain is as foreign to his drama as to
his thought. By the leap from quantitative to qualitative a new phase
of the historical flux is produced (Aj., 1, 393: 23.3.42). The figure and
the plot are parts of the progress of history. The circular type of drama
found equally in naturalism and absurdism, in which no actions and no
decisions make any real difference, is rare in Brecht.
Brecht is classical, not romantic. He sees writing as a craft, not a
calling. He instances the hard work and accuracy of Flaubert, Zola,
Baudelaire, against the German lack of a technical-artistic ethos (Tb.,
122: 20.5.21). The artist must make form work for him, not allow every
isolated emotion its full development. renounce reproduction of outer
reality in favour of leisurely 'revelation of humanity with all its nuances
and shifts of plane' (Tb .• 139: 17.6.21). He cannot empathise with every
character he wants to depict; rather he exploits the sum of modem
knowledge (Aj., 1. 236: 28.1.41). To show an ambitious man he needs
knowledge of public political and economic affairs and a grasp of psycho-
logy (Brecht was interested in psychoanalysis and in behaviourism, though
subscribing completely to neither). But it must all be converted into
poetry (Dichtung) in his final text (15, 268-70; Vergniigungstheater oder
Lehrtheater). Any amount of message is no substitute for the peculiar
aesthetic quality. Reading an essay on himself, Brecht complains 'ide-
ology. ideology. ideology. never an aesthetic concept; the whole thing
is like a description of a food without anything about its taste. we
ought to start by arranging exhibitions and courses on the training of
taste. that is, on enjoyment of life' (Aj .• 2, 929: 10.6.50). This does not
mean the writer is autonomous. The food he offers must nourish as
well as tasting good. The writer- and the actor- is given the responsi-
bility to criticise society and take a hand in its improvement. In a pro-
ductive society the social ethos and the artist's ethos go hand in hand: in
a socially regressive society art may do well to develop its ethos (moral)
independently of society (Aj .• 1. 358: 16.1.42).
An ideal of cool gracefulness. or elegance, is derived from sport. In
the arena. in Brecht's interpretation, trained sportsmen do what they
seem to enjoy. please the public, and generate enjoyment by their skills.
The theatre too could have audiences of 15,000 and recover contact
with the spirit of the age if it would lower the emotional temperature
and become elegant, light, dry, concrete (15, 82-6: Mehr guten Sport
and Uber den "Untergang des Theaters"; B. on Theatre, 6-8). The audi-
ence must be able to sit back, relax, smoke, appraise characters and
their reactions. Elegance is also characteristic of oriental theatre. Its
plays are often loose in construction, exposition handled by apostrophe
to the audience, scenery stylised, musicians on stage in view of the
audience, sets changed with no curtain; no attempt is made at the illus-
ion of a real world, gestures and action are conventional, and the spec-
tator comes to judge the performance as a performance. 30 That Brecht
knew all this is obvious from his later theory, and though acquaintance
with Chinese acting came too late and remained too slight to have formed
his views on elegant distancing in the theatre, he uses it as a corpus of
evidence that non-illusionistic theatre can thrive.
Brecht's plot may consist of a number of episodic, demonstrative
actions - as many as happen to be needed - with no overt connection.
The five-act play is practically unknown to him. This is 'epic theatre'
applied to the actual structure of the text. The term episch in German
has to do with narrative form -less with sheer scale, as often in Eng-
lish.31 Brecht constructs model situations to show social relationships,
rather than more or less naturalistic depictions of probable and lifelike
procedures. Theatre is not life. It must however learn from life and
have an analogous relationship of plan and chance, probable and im-
probable (15, 117: Vorrede zu 'Macbeth'). Brecht found a loose way of
constructing drama in Georg Buchner; the neater the tragedy, the more
Brecht sees it as a mere anecdote which simply confirms the spectator's
view of life. The stage must tackle such characteristic conflicts of our era
as the fluctuations of grain prices (15, 174: Uber eine neue Dramatik).
For this an open, or a tectonic, dramatic structure is needed. 32 Brecht
repeats the development undergone some years before by Eisenstein, whose
major films develope montage to deal with plots whose ramifications
defy treatment within a conventional dramatic structure. In each case
the need to treat new, complex and extensive materials led to new tech-
niques. Brecht began in every genre in old forms, transcending them
only when they hindered him (Aj., 1, 18: 3.8.38). Function, not form, is
primary; art is practical, not a refuge from real life. The world of the
play is not an autonomous one which comes to an end with the resolu-
tion of its tension in a catastrophe into whose preparation all the char-
acters are drawn. Brecht's stage figures are independent of the drama-
in Mother Courage, even quite important figures swim in and out of the
action quite arbitrarily. This contributes to the lifelike jerkiness of the
action. 'The Augsburger cuts his plays up into a series of little independ-
ent playlets, so that the action progresses by jumps' (16, 605: Messing-
kauf- Das Theater des Stuckeschreibers; M. Dial., 75). Within these
pieces, the deeds of the protagonist show the attitudes to which his
social dependences incline him.
Brecht wants to give the drama the possibilities of the narrative:
presentation of the action as past and continuously completely present
in the narrator's mind, and freedom for the audience to go at its own
pace and refer mentally to previous sections of the narration, coolly
making comparisons. Brecht does not (except in The Caucasian Chalk
Circle) use the stage narrator, traceable from the Greek chorus through
Shakespeare's histories to Thornton Wilder, but he does have ways of
pressing on the audience's attention a perspective chosen by the author.
Narration by figures within the play is common, but the function is filled
in most of his plays by scene titles, which, like the chapter titles of the
old-fashioned novel, give away much of the action of the scene. They are
to be projected on to a curtain or other suitable surface before each scene.
As well as communicating from author to audience, marking each scene
off from its predecessor, and removing tension about the outcome of the
scene, they may- in historical plays - give dates and background material,
showing the relationship of history and stage action.
All narrative procedures bridge the gap between stage and audience.
Brecht's stage is never, from the outset, a closed world. For the first
production of Drums in the Night the theatre was hung with placards
with such warnings as 'Don't gawp so romantically!' to wake the audi-
ence from its hypnotic trance. With Man is Man, Brecht broke with the
convention of natural exposition and let the protagonist present himself,
his status and his plans directly in an address to the audience. Figures
temporarily abandon their roles and step into the audience's world. From
the popular melodrama Brecht developed the use of asides to audience,
for information and comment. Similarly songs from the Threepenny
Opera on are narrative elements, definite interruptions of the dramatic
action rather than parts of it, and they can communicate directly from
author to public. Then Brecht loves to have characters telling stories. In
Mr Puntila and his Man Matti, not only are things narrated which could
have been incorporated in the dialogue, but much of the play consists
of stories unrelated to the action but filling out the theme. The most
pointed narration is the deposition of a witness in court; Brecht loves
court-scenes with their more or less dispassionate search for the truth
about some social action. Psychology is relevant here only in its social
aspects; the actual episode is seen at one remove; and the play-
wright can show how one arm of the state, the judicature, regards
the problems arising in the society it controls. The process of dis-
covering the truth is the material of Brecht's basic exemplar of theatre,
the classic 'Street Scene' in the Messingkauf {16, 546-58; B. on
Theatre, 121-8; cf. On everyday Theatre, 9, .766-70; B. Poems, 176-
9). An action of actual relevance is presented in such a way as to
make it easier for the spectator to give an opinion on the subject (lead-
ing to criticism). Theatre is a section of reality engaged in a play, a game
representing some other section of reality. This game makes social-
historical complexes, the class and individual forces at work in a
historical epoch, visible. It does not claim completeness, it does not
provide an expose of Marxism for those too lazy to read Marx for them-
selves, and it has little to do with socialist realism, which demands
mimetic reproduction of an action having a progressive typicality inter-
preted in limited ideological terms. Rather Brecht aims at some analogy
with reality, and at the collection of attitudes which suggest to the
audience possible implications outside the theatre. Here he is followed
by Friedrich Diirrenmatt, who however makes cynicism, not productivity,
the content of his implied lessons. Against the usual yardstick of realism,
'a work of art is more realistic as reality is easier to recognise in it',
Brecht sets up the assertion 'that a work of art is more realistic the more
recognisably reality is mastered in it' (Aj., 1, 142: 4.8.40). It is an am-
bitious aim and means that the plays and productions are more difficult
to digest than conventionally realistic products, particularly as the
episodically constructed play has a wealth of implications and contra-
dictions. 'the unitary whole consists of independent parts, each of which
can be immediately confronted with the corresponding part-processes
in reality- indeed must be' (Aj., 1, 140: 3.8.40). Mastering reality is one
of the two tasks of theatre: the other, enjoyment, is inseparable from
it. 'The theatre must in fact remain something entirely superfluous,
though this indeed means that it is the superfluous for which we live.
Nothing needs less justification than pleasure' (16, 664: Kleines Organon
§3; B. on Theatre, 181). 'the world is grasped as capable of being
changed. a moral imperative "change it!" need not take effect. the
theatre simply gains for its audience somebody who produces the world'
(Aj., 1, 194: 1.11.40). Causality is important in this theatre as under-
standing of causes is necessary for mastering the world - in contrast to
Aristotelian theatre in which a state of affairs whose causes may remain
unexplained produces an emotional reaction (Aj., 1, 136£.; 2.8.40). Deeper
structures are to be shown, not necessarily surface reality.
A useful term in the analysis of Brecht's plays, but one with which he
himself had difficulty (sometimes defining it more narrowly than I shall),
is Cestus (untranslatable: attitude as shown in the signs we use in com-
municating with others). At its widest this means the basic attitude
which informs any particular transaction between people. 33 The trans-
action can be a whole work of art presented to a public, a conversation,
a single speech considered as an independent component of a conversa-
tion. Gestus concentrates on interactions between people, for Brecht dis-
liked psychological observations which could not be expressed in social
interplay and put to work in the recognition and changing of social
circumstances. It includes the unspoken 'languages' of demeanour by
which we recognise others' behaviour, but language itself also. Its theory
is basically Hegelian. What is said in a dialogue cannot be interpreted
out of context, but only when placed within the complex interaction of
theses and antitheses which is conversation. Theatre aims to communi-
cate from stage to audience a demonstration of social facts, so the basic
gestus of theatre is demonstration (see 15, 341: Kurze Beschreibung einer
neuen Technik der Schauspielkunst; B. on Theatre, 136). Within this,
different passages of a play represent the gestus of particular social facts
and relationships: the gestus of deferring to someone who may give you
money, of attempting to convince by logical argument, etc. In analysing
the text one may always ask what the gestus of a play, a scene, an
episode, a speech is. This helps to fix the inner structure of the play. for
the succession and interplay of different kinds of gestus is basic to the
dramatist's art. Brecht's scene titles often hint at the gestus of a par-
ticular scene. He also suggests setting up 'a scheme of quantums of effect,
which one would look for in the scenes, poetic, dramaturgic, showing the
history of manners, social-political. psychological (furthering knowledge
of human nature). etc. one could make statements about these quan-
tums which could have come from aesthetic, social-historical. psycho-
logical textbooks': for instance, isolating the social history shown in
scene 2 of Mother Courage in a generalisation which could find its place
in a textbook: 'the dealers plundered their own armies as well as the
inhabitants of the enemy country' (Aj .• 1. 206£.; 9.12.40).
Brecht never speaks of establishing aesthetic rules for the stage, only
of techniques, functional means to an extraneous end (19, 411: Notizen
zur Arbeit- Uber iisthetische Gesetze). The number of techniques avail-
able for furthering the ends he has in view is unlimited; Brecht gives
the examples he happens to have at hand, not intending to hold anyone
else in the straitjacket of his limitations. Brecht-theatre is an extensible
concept. Others following his ethos and attitude in their way. using their
imagination, will impose their own flavour on their productions. 'My rules
are to be applied only by those who retain independent judgment, a
spirit of contradiction and a social imagination, and who are in touch with
the progressive sectors of the public and are thus themselves progressive,
rounded, thinking people. I cannot muzzle the ox that grindeth out
the corn' (16. 600: Messingkauf- Das Theater des Stuckeschreibers).
Brecht hopes to find a tradition which, adapting to unforeseeable
conditions of the future, will give scope to the productivity of gener-
ations- not a rigid style which, fossilising. will lose touch with reality.
Werner Hecht points out: 'Brecht's way of working, that is his tech-
nique at the desk and in the theatre . . . delivers to us that which
preserves his theatre from fossilisation: the ability to find readings of
plays for the contemporary audience; doubt of extant solutions; contact
with the audience as a principle; a range of models as impulses for
creative work . . . Brecht's method delivers no recipes. There is no
"style" in the Berliner Ensemble.' 84 There is only a general attitude: to
present things in the light of reason and sensuality (the English way)
rather than of pedantry and passion (the German way)(Mat. G., 76). Con-
versely one should look critically at the techniques Brecht invented, which
can only remain valid as long as they continue, despite changing social
contexts, to produce the effects he had in mind. They are not fetishes
with absolute rights to immortality. Manfred Wekwerth points out,
for instance, that Brecht introduced the light. half-height curtain used
during scene changes at a time when audiences universally expected a
heavy proscenium curtain to descend; but that expectation no longer
being present, the Brechtian curtain no longer has its shock effect and
has instead become a fetish. the outward sign of a pseudo-Brecht style
which does not necessarily correspond to any inward thought. 86 So all
that follows about Brecht's stage techniques is to be taken as a report
with ideas in it, not as an instruction manual.
The cardinal point of Brecht's theories of distancing on the stage is
the work of the actor. Given his head, the actor could- German stars of
the twenties excelled at this - by his own aura create empathy and
illusion which would undo all efforts at distancing. Brecht early objects
to actors spending so much effort learning to feel like Richard III and
not being able to carry a glass of water across the stage. They have
inadequate elegance, self-observation and technical skills: and they have
not the kind of knowledge of human nature one needs for playing poker
(15, 111: Weniger Gips). They should come down off their pedestal.
The first stage of Brechtian acting proper- preserved for us to some
extent in the film of The Threepenny Opera - is the supercooled style.
The actor takes a distance from the figure, acts dispassionately; he
refuses to give way to the emotions implicit in a speech, rather he
quotes what he has to say. This stage starts with the historic moment
when Helene Weigel, as the maid reporting ]ocasta's death in Oedipus
Rex, delivered her lines with a sense of their importance rather than of
their horror (15, 190f.: Dialog iiber Schauspielkunst; B. on Theatre, 28).
Brecht generalises later: 'If he [the actor] would just restrict himself
to bringing out the sense of the words without more feeling than hap-
pens to arise as he is talking, then the spectator would once more be
enabled to feel something and enjoy food that has not been predigested
for him' (15, 412f.: Erfahrungen). Distance is gained in various ways.
Brecht liked to cast young actors for the roles of old people, which
automatically encourages the actor in observation and discourages
empathy. A favourite rehearsal technique (practically the only one which
his actors recognised as specifically Brechtian) is turning speeches into
reported speech. 'She said she was ashamed to offer her son such poor
soup . . .' immediately establishes a distance between role and actress.
Or speeches are read against the grain: what seems unique and highly
charged is taken as routine and requiring no emphasis- in the 1932 film
Kuhle Wampe the censor objected less to an unemployed man's killing
himself, than to his doing it as casually as if peeling a cucumber; con-
versely. routine ways of talking may be emphasised, so that the audi-
ence has to see them in a fresh light and recognise their implications
for the critical analysis of the whole society of which they are mani-
festations.
In fact the actor comments. To do this, he must have a social per-
spective on his role. Brecht is willing to help here. For instance, his
Zwischenszenen ('Interpolated Scenes', 1939). extra episodes for classical
plays. show such things as how much Romeo is the spoilt child of his
class and has no feeling for subordinates -which will affect interpreta-
tion of the part. The actor cannot have in himself the materials for
creating by empathetic processes the characters of both Romeo and
Lear (15, 391f.: Schauspielkunst); so he must observe, appreciate, analyse
and finally copy reality, rather than exploiting his own psychology. The
analysis means such things as historicising: finding what parts of char-
acters' behaviour are timeless, which belong to the particular epoch only
(Looking for the new and old, 9, 793; B. Poems, 424). The character is
built up from the outside, not from inner emotion but from attitudes
and gestures. The resulting copy of an observed reality is applied to the
business of speaking a dramatic text which is fiction- to be quoted from,
not believed in (15, 342-4 and 351-2: Kurze Beschreibung • . . ;
B. on Theatre, 136-8 and 142). The actor continually compares what
the author has written with his own experience of reality, and in the
light of this comparison stresses some features of the text which
the author perhaps did not intend to be stressed; he is reluctant to let the
action take the course intended by the author, he shows that he is
being dragged along, he adds elements alien to the author's conception
of the part (15, 402: Aufbau der Figur). A simple example of com-
parison with a reality obviously outside the play would be the way the
actors in Mother Courage stress the 'Adolf' in the name of the King of
Sweden, the invader of Poland. Suggested rehearsal procedures are to
memorise where, at first reading. one found the text odd; to invent and
speak reasons for the oddities of the figure's behaviour ('I was in a bad
mood because I hadn't eaten, and said: .. .'); to exchange roles, copy-
ing the other actor or diverging from his interpretation; to improvise in
the style of the author (15, 409-11; Anweisungen an die Schauspieler).
That the actor does not depend on his own psychological resources to
build up an interpretation does not mean he cannot put across his own
feelings. In developing his own social perspective he develops emotions
about the figure (not coinciding with the figure's emotions) and finds
ways of superimposing them on his interpretation. Helene Weigel in the
part of Senora Carrar broke into tears during performance, perhaps on
a day when the Spanish Civil War was going badly. It may have been
bad acting; but the actress is entitled to her feelings, as long as they are
those of a thinking, socially committed person (16, 601: Messingkauf
- Das Theater des Stuckeschreibers; M. Dial., 70f.). Inspiration is
allowed, within the framework of reason; so are tears over Senora Carrar
(not tears arising from identification with her). Sympathy is allowed,
empathy is suspect. 86 The actor remains aware of what he is doing, what
he is transmitting to the audience. Only if the actor is aware can the
audience have its awareness heightened. The actor defends and criticises
the character he plays; but he may defend warmly. In this event the
cool awareness is pushed into the background. At some points of Brecht's
plays tension mounts to a point inimical to cool analysis: in Mother
Courage scene 3, for instance. Weigel had all the art of an actress
skilled in creating illusion, and put it to work here- but it had to be
abandoned in scene 4, which it could ruin.
As Riilicke-Weiler (pp. 165f.) points out, a representational (as opposed
to self-identificatory) style of acting has often been fostered by authors
and theatres with a critical attitude to social reality, from Diderot to
agitprop. The representational school is more likely to be able to come
to grips with the social aspect, the identificatory with the psychological
aspect of a role. Since Brecht is content neither with two-dimensional
figures which merely represent a class, nor with asocially seen heroic
individuals, he requires from the actor a synthesis of the approaches.
{It must be remembered that the Hegelian synthesis does not supersede
its components, but puts them in their place within the scheme of things.)
In Moscow in 1935 Brecht saw a demonstration by the Chinese actor
Mai Lan-fang, which led to the crystallisation of his thought on the
duality of the actor as actor and figure, and its technical possibilities.
The duality is observable in the villain of our nineteenth-century melo-
drama, whose 'stage leer' shows the actor's distance from the role; but
such forerunners are not actually examples of distancing; 37 the con-
scious, primary, social and intellectual aims of Brecht are missing in
them. In Mai Lan-fang Brecht noted the use of conventional gestures
to show a series of aspects: tea is made; made in the traditional way;
in the traditional way by a girl; by an impatient girl; by an actor using
gestures apposite to an impatient girl (15, 427: Uber das Theater der
Chinesen §4). There is nothing inscrutably oriental about this: Brecht
could have seen the same in classical ballet, had he wanted to. In any
case he must substitute for the symbolic and hieratic meanings of the
elements of Chinese theatre an analogy to empirical reality.
A further stage of Brechtian acting, dependent on clear recognition of
the duality of actor and figure, is reached 'with Charles Laughton as
Galileo in 1947. Its elements are Laughton's eminence and his power of
relaxation. The public which admires the actor comes to see him show-
ing 'what he imagines Galileo to have been'; 'the demonstrator Laughton
does not disappear in the Galileo whom he is showing' (16, 683f.:
Kleines Organon §49; B. on Theatre, 194, but I have altered the trans-
lation). He could produce an admirable effect by turning into Galileo,
but he does not; he remains two entities in one body, Laughton and
Galileo, and so his acting combines two types of gestus: the constant
gestus of showing on Laughton's part, whatever gestus the text calls
for on Galileo's part. And Laughton relaxes: Brecht imagines him smoking
a cigar and 'laying it down now and again in order to show us some
further characteristic attitude of the figure in the play' (ibid.). The mysti-
cal trance is radically removed from the theatre experience.38 As with
the social function of theatre, so with the acting technique involved: it
can all be derived from a single simple everyday example provided by
Brecht in the street scene. The actor, though possessing much more
sophisticated skills, is in the position of the bystander demonstrating,
after an accident, how it happened. He does not intend to be taken for
either the victim or the driver, but to make clear how the victim moved
and to convey the flavour of the driver's self-exculpations. The story
is primary. the characterisation derived from it. The accident is over,
the bystander is not in danger, he can relax and be himself. But his
evidence may be important, for instance if there is a prosecution
later.
One must admit that Brechtian acting often seems fuller of mystique
than of meat. His own descriptions of actors at work consist chiefly of
analyses of techniques for building up interpretations, preparing and
rehearsing. Weigel and Laughton are the main cases in which he claims
the further specific quality of conscious demonstration. Thomas K. Brown
concluded after enquiries in the Berliner Ensemble in 1972 that no
specifically Brechtian distancing procedure was at work there. Ekkehard
Schall was unable to explain how to demonstrate in doing an action that
he had made a decision not to do the opposite, or in making a statement
that it was false though the character said it in good faith (both demands
made by Brecht). His explanation of showing that he was only demon-
strating a figure was vitiated by the fact that when on stage he turned
temporarily from Coriolanus into Schall, it merely looked as though he
had forgotten his lines. Nor were members of the audience being affected
in the ways the theory demands. 39 Even in Brecht's lifetime his actors
were unclear as to whether they used a peculiar mode of work (Theater-
arbeit, 412). Angelika Hurwicz seems to think not. 40 It is not easy to
see how an actor can learn procedures to enable him to represent two
different things to the audience simultaneously. The decision not to per-
form an action can only be shown by the traditional means of starting
to do it and then stopping. And the effect of demonstrating, rather than
being, a figure can be gained only if the actor can for reasons implicit
in his own personality - think of the relaxed geniality of Laughton, so
much more at home on the stage than in life! -and out of the fulness
of his enjoyment of acting give the impression of an actor enjoying
himself in giving a zestful interpretation of a role. This is a matter of
ethos and experience, not properly speaking technical; and Laughton, for
one, had this capability before he met Brecht.
It is then perhaps time to debunk the concept of Brechtian acting, to
sweep away the abstruse and unrealisable technical demands and leave
ourselves with two things: the body of training and rehearsal techniques
by which Brecht encourages distancing as between actor and role, and
the actor's ethos which makes the spirit of criticism and the spirit of
enjoyment parts of his personality on and off stage. Brecht's require-
ment that empathy between audience and role should be avoided is then
to be fulfilled in two ways: by the intervention of distancing elements
in text, design and music; and by the constant ground-tone of watching
the actor enjoy giving a good performance.
Brecht tends towards a less authoritarian idea of theatrical production
than is usual, so that actors, designer and so on are free to impose their
own attitudes. He sets up against Wagner's Gesamtkunstwerk the idea of
a composite work of art which can tolerate differences of approach on the
part of its various makers. In the attempt to make the music of Maha-
gonny, like the words, appeal more to the reason than to the emotions
he demands music to interpret (not heighten) the text, go beyond (not
restate) it, and express an opinion (not illustrate) (17, 1011: Anmer-
kungen zur Oper " ... Mahagonny"; B. on Theatre, 38). A little later
he praises jazz techniques for their combination of individual freedom to
improvise with general discipline (17, 1032: Anmerkungen zur "Mass-
nahme"). In 1941 he encouraged Simon Parmet to use his orchestra for
independent statements in writing music for Mother Courage (Aj., 1, 240:
2.2.41).
Illusionism in decor is done away with. 'It is more important today
that the decor should tell the spectator he is in a theatre, rather than,
say. in Aulis. The theatre as theatre must take on that fascinating reality
that the boxing arena has. The best thing is to show the machinery, the
winches and the flies' (15, 79: Dekoration). When Meyerhold's company
visited Berlin in 1930 Brecht found ideas for continuing his work: both
believed in visible lighting. The designer in Brecht-theatre has, like the
composer. independence and responsibility. Elegance is a precondition of
all his work. Caspar Neher (following techniques of Piscator's) early used
the bipartite stage, a three-dimensional room small in the foreground and
a wide backdrop showing the social scene; and also static projections of a
symbolic nature. Brecht explains that a text set among a small number of
people calls for staging which will fill it out by showing the wider func-
tional aspects. To clarify the implications of a simple dialogue in a factory
yard, the decor uses financial and other data about the concern in ques-
tion, showing how it treats its workers and who gets the profits (15, 456f.:
Zeichen und Symbole).
The stage began to tell a story. The narrator was no longer missing,
along with the fourth wall. Not only did the background adopt an
attitude to the events on the stage - by big screens recalling other
simultaneous events elsewhere, by projecting documents which con-
firmed or contradicted what the characters said, by concrete and in-
telligible figures to accompany abstract conversations, by figures and
sentences to support mimed transactions whose sense was unclear-
but the actors too refrained from going over wholly into their role ...
(15, 164: Vergniigugstheater oder Lehrtheater; B. on Theatre, 71).
The designer. like other members of the team, works at social facts and
presents the mass of data in a form in which the audience can master it
and find the exercise useful. He is not afraid of the written word as a
design element: it shows he has been thinking (15, 464: Literarisierung
der Buhnen). Design also means creating areas which reflect social circum-
stances (a capitalist's house is too large for his actions, a proletarian's
too small) and previous users as well as present inhabitants (15, 449f.:
Fixierung des Raums bei induktiver Methode). Where in conventional
dramaturgy spaces express their occupants. here they show their occu-
pants' adaptation to existing circumstances. Whilst Brecht sometimes
works with a bare stage, as in Mother Courage where a constant white
ground suggests the spatial and temporal limitlessness and barrenness
of war. his dramatic language needs use of all the theatre's resources. He
did not require every word on stage to be audible - provided the set and
groupings told the story. The Berliner Ensemble used lavish sets and
costumes when indicated: Brecht is said to have insisted on real copper
and no papier-mache for the decor for Galileo: 'If I set riches in front
of the proletariat. it must be genuine riches.' 41 The totality of the set
forms a harmony of its own, different for each production, on which
Brecht was very insistent, noticing if something was an inch out of
place; props. down to the tin spoon which Weigel as Mother Courage
wore through a loop in her padded jacket, combine aesthetic harmony.
functional solidity and symbolic value.
The Chinese theatre does without illusion, and Brecht found it worth
learning from the way it uses masks. costume and setting to comple-
ment the work of the actor; but his practice was already fixed, probably
with a certain influence from the Japanese N6 plays, by 1930. Masks do
away with the illusion of reality and draw attention to the social fact
that a person in the imperialist era is indeed a persona, a fa~ade put up
to hide or even smother the character rather than express it. Masks are
often specified for the ruling classes and their helpers, whose personality
is held to be distorted and forced into a rigid mould by their exertions
to gain and retain power; less for the workers and men in the street.
Shen Teh has a mask when in her vain pursuit of the higher good she be-
comes Shui Ta. Brecht, fascinated by nuances of costume from the time
of The Threepenny Opera on. worked out the function of costume fully
in the Berliner Ensemble with the help of the costume designer Kurt
Palm. Costume is first a social indicator: expensive or cheap, new or
old, worn evenly or unevenly. according to the wearer's work and finances;
but then it is a personal statement: members of a mass are marked as
individuals by variations of clothing. ambition is portrayed by giving
a figure clothing above his social station, and so on.
All the theatrical arts are placed on a single level. and their relation-
ship consists of their mutually distancing each other's efforts (16, 699:
Kleines Organon §74; B. on Theatre. 204). In practice writing, direction,
acting and design are the core. Music is important and independent, but
still often given menial functions, notably to indicate that the plane of
dramatic action is being left for that of meditation or of unreality (in
The Good Person especially). Dance gets a mention in the Short Organum,
but is not prominent in practice: Brecht had to give up the idea of featur-
ing a dance at the end of The Caucasian Chalk Circle, one of his few
theatrical capitulations.
'it is impossible to finalise a play without the stage ... only the stage
decides between the possible variants' (Aj .• 1, 122: 30.6.40). So the play
reaches its final form during the very complex process of Brechtian re-
hearsal. The director takes a modest part here - Brecht calls him Proben-
leiter, rehearsal manager. Brecht did not theorise in rehearsal. Whereas
Gordon Craig. whose movement from theatre of reproduction to theatre
of representation parallels Brecht's thought, wanted to go on to a theatre
of creation pursuing transcendent aesthetic aims under the direction of
a super-regisseur whom he calls the monarch. Brecht refuses any offer
of a crown and wants a democratic and socialist theatre. He tries as
director to see that the basic social aspects come across, he helps his co-
workers to understand the dialectics of their roles but does not impose on
them with his interpretations (16, 759f.: Die Spielleitung Brechts). That
Brecht never spoke the lines to suggest an interpretation is however un-.
true: he did so in rehearsing Galileo and recommended the procedure
to Benno Besson, whilst forbidding Manfred Wekwerth to use it.~ 2 He
did not theorise. nor psychologise. preferring to work from the outside,
from attitudes shown in interpersonal relationships, and pragmatically.
He directed from the auditorium. ·
A lengthy note in Theaterarbeit (25 6-8; and see the notes on Theater-
arbeit in B. on Theatre) distinguishes fifteen stages in the preparation of a
production. (1) Analysis of the play -looking for social lessons and
impulses, turning-points of the plot. structure of events; writing a short
summary; thinking how to get the story line and its social significance
clear. (2) Preliminary discussion of a set or sets. production of sketches
showing groupings of actors and their postures at various points. (3)
Preliminary casting- not type-casting. for the sake of the actor and of
realism. (4) Reading through with little expression or characterisation,
to familiarise the cast with the plot. (5) Trying out positions, movements,
accentuations, gestures. including those invented by the actors; moving
towards characterisation. (6) Set rehearsal: marrying intended sets with
movements and groupings, so that sets can be completed early and props
found. Later rehearsals are with final sets and props. (7) Detail rehearsal
of each gestic section. building of characterisation. rehearsal of the tran-
sitions from section to section. (8) Run through, pulling elements together
and getting relative emphasis and continuity right. (9) Discussion of
costume and make-up- only possible when characterisation is fixed; but
high heels, beards, etc., can be tried out earlier. (10) Check rehearsals to
see if demands under (1) are being met; groupings photographed for ex-
amination. (11) Tempo rehearsals: a series of dress rehearsals to fix
tempo and running time. (12) Main dress rehearsal. (13) A quick
run-through without prompter, with gestures only hinted at. (14) Pre-
views: checking the reaction of audiences, preferably homogeneous ones
(students, a factory group) to allow discussion. Correction rehearsals.
(15) Public premiere- the director is not present, actors are given their
head.
Rehearsal also included the production of a sort of super prompt·copy
showing signs for music and sound-effects, cues and pauses, the end
of sections within the scene, and the words emphasised in every single
sentence of the dialogue. 43 This leads into the characteristic Berliner En-
semble institution of the Modellbuch, 'Model Book' of a production,
worked out under Brecht's guidance by Ruth Berlau. It consists of be-
tween 450 and 600 photos of the production, keyed to the text. Photos
were taken from a single position, in the circle and rather to the side
(unless the beauty of a particular piece of business was better shown
from elsewhere), and selected to show the main changes of groupings
onstage and the most characteristic gestures. They should ideally tell the
story even without the help of dialogue. Production assistants took notes
during rehearsals of interesting discussions, salient points insisted on by
the director, timings for each scene, and so on; these notes. collated,
form a commentary in the model book. Photos of costumes and masks
against neutral backgrounds, and of sets and props, are appended. Cer-
tain model books were eventually printed, others existed in maquette
form to be borrowed by other theatres planning to perform plays in the
Berliner Ensemble repertoire. Sometimes Brecht made the following of
the model a condition for allowing a performance. Properly used, the
model book explains the points Brecht would wish to be stressed in pro-
duction and helps its user to see the problems of the work concerned
as Brecht saw them. No director is expected to negate his own theatre's
traditions and his own tendencies; but working with the model makes
him confront them with Brecht's intentions, an aspect very important
when so much of Brecht's thought cannot be read from the plain text.
And the model book imposes standards: if the user cannpt think of a
better solution, he can at least copy what a good theatre did! 44 Brecht
defends the art of copying, done intelligently; but Werner Hecht has
amusingly exemplified the results of too mechanical copying. as when a
designer with a very large stage to work on copied the proportions of
the Berliner Ensemble set for The Good Person, so that what should be
a very crowded little shop became a spacious area and the scenic effect
was lost. 4~
Most lessons about Brecht theatre in action are of course derived from
the example of the Berliner Ensemble during the short period when
Brecht was its. chief director, dating for practical purposes from the
1949 Mother Courage. This was his first opportunity to try out in a
series of productions with a static base the concepts he had been writ-
ing about, all through his exile years, which sum up to his mature
view of theatre. The Berliner Ensemble did not have to be miserly with
material resources or rehearsal time. Its team consisted of the finest
theatrical talents in the most important fields, and they thought out
every production, from the basic conception of a drama whose emotional
effect is based on its success in analysing the deep mainsprings of society,
through important technical characteristics such as the dismissal of atmos-
pheric lighting effects, to the superficial trademarks such as the half-
curtain. This thinking-out was done in theatrical, not theoretical, terms.
In conversation Brecht attached more importance than in his writings to
the imponderabilia of actors' personalities, the sudden inspiration which
produces a new and enjoyable theatrical effect, and so on. The result was
exciting; East Berlin became the 'obligatory pilgrimage' 46 of all avant-
garde theatrical artists.
Yet there is another aspect. In the reception of Mother Courage Brecht
saw dangers for the understanding of his theatre. Despite all attempts
to make the protagonist a hyena of the battlefield, people insisted on
feeling for and with her as a victim of war. They were politically not ready
for the message. The work that followed in the Berliner Ensemble was direc-
ted more towards the political education and activisation of the audience
than towards the realisation of a true Brecht-theatre. He went on record
as saying that the present state of the theatre did not allow the full ex-
ploitation in practice of his theories (Theaterarbeit, 412). Whereas he had
said his epic theatre was unsuitable for short-term propaganda, the
repertoire was biased towards political topicality, including Strittmatter's
Katzgraben as a comment on agrarian reform and Becher's Winter-
schlacht apropos of West German rearmament. 47 And there has long been
a strain of criticism which felt the productions of Brecht's own works
did not do justice to them. The overriding need, however, was not to
satisfy critics insistent on Brechtian purity, but to keep in touch with
the audience- many of whose attitudes had survived from before 1945,
even from before 1919 {16, 906£.: Einige lrrtumer uber die Spielweise
des Berliner Ensembles). 'The political vision of our public is only slowly
getting into focus' (16, 832: Katzgraben-Notate, Neuer lnhalt, neue
Form).
The realisation of disjunctive theatre was also hampered by the tend-
ency to treat Brecht as a Grand Old Man. He approved of the practice
of recording his rehearsals on tape, as an example to posterity of what
can be done in a theatre with that Utopian luxury, unlimited rehearsal
time; 48 but the result is to enhance, rather than limit, the status of the
director. Yet his leadership did guarantee movement in the direction of
Brecht-theatre, and his productions and model books remain authoritative
until a company arises which, starting from his artistic ethos, can
develop independently in his spirit. This company is not necessarily the
Berliner Ensemble, which for some time after 1956 seemed concerned
to follow more than to develop the master's practice. Helene Weigel
was criticised for rigidity and autocracy. After Manfred Wekwerth's de-
parture in 1969 and her death in 1971 there were changes. 49 Her succes-
sor, Ruth Berghaus, though an accomplished Brechtian, has been charged
with eclecticism, neglect of the Brecht tradition and putting on plays
with no didactic purpose. However, Manfred Wekwerth has now re-
turned as director. Another noteworthy Brechtian nucleus was built
up in the 1960s by Fritz Bennewitz at the Deutsches National theater,
Weimar. 50 Brecht's influence in East Germany has grown since his
death, despite the persistence of basic doubts about the acceptability
of critical theatre under a socialist regime. Much the same goes for the
Soviet Union. 51 In West Germany Max Frisch's phrase, that he has
attained the 'hard-hitting ineffectiveness of a classic', is still apt (though
Brecht would have been critical of the capitalist world's definitions of
effectiveness and of classicality). In 1971-2 he outdistanced Shake-
speare in number of performances. 52 As for Brecht-theatre, a potential
carrier of the tradition is the West Berlin Schaubuhne, an ensemble of
independent artists directed with awareness of Brecht by Peter Stein, and
having plenty of time and material resources. 5 8
In the United States Brecht is still largely for the radical fringe, having
given rise to such way-out phenomena as the Bertold [sic] Brecht Memor-
ial Guerilla Theater of Austin, Texas. 54 Truly Brechtian productions are
rare in America as elsewhere. A few Brechtian directors have arisen in
Europe: Jean Vilar and Roger Planchon in France, Giorgio Strehler in
Italy. 55 In Great Britain his influence, mediated by Kenneth Tynan and
seen particularly in the work of Peter Hall, has been blamed for much
that is boring in the modern classical stage. If that is so, it is a mis-
understood and distorted influence. More fun was kept in the Brechtian
style by Joan Littlewood's Stratford productions, and the master would
have approved of Oh, What a Lovely War! But we must still echo
Michael Kustow's remark that the 'fruitful ambiguities' of Brecht's later
plays have not yet been confronted on the British stage. 56 We seem to
skirt round the four great plays this book is about; they are often per-
formed amateurishly, almost never well by any standards Brecht would
recognise. The latest production (The Good Woman of Setzuan, Royal
Court Theatre. London, 1977) runs true to form by cutting important
scenes.
1 Life ofGalileo, scene 2: the Doge tries to attract Galileo's attention (Berliner Ensemble 1957)
2 Life of Galileo, scene 12: Laughton with projection of instruments of torture (New York 194 7)
3 Mother Courage, scene 6: Courage counts stock and curses war (Berliner Ensemble 19 51)
Courage, scene 6: Courage counts stock and curses
counts stock and curses
5 The Good Person of Szechw an, street set (Frank furt 1952)
6a The Good Person of Szechwan, scene 7: 6b The Good Person of Szechwan, scene 8: Shui Ta supervises the
Shen Teh addresses the public (Berliner tobacco factory (Zurich 1943)
Ensemble 1957)
7a The Caucasian Chalk Circle , act 2: Grusha rescues Michael (Berliner
Ensemble 1954)
7b The Caucasian Chalk Circle , act 3: the bridge (Berliner Ensemble 1954)
8 The Caucasian Chalk Circle, act 6: Grusha argues with the Governor's Wife (Berliner Ensemble 1954)
4 The Life of Galileo
This play contains 'the most complete presentation of Brecht's intellec-
tual world'. 1 The first version was written in Denmark in November
1938 and revised early in 1939. It reached the stage in Zurich on 9
September 1943. A second version in English was worked out in collabor-
ation with Charles Laughton in California from December 1944 to
December 1945, and first performed in Beverly Hills on 31 July 1947.
This version, turned back into German by Elisabeth Hauptmann and
Benno Besson, and further altered by Brecht (third version). was put
on in Cologne on 16 April 1955 and by the Berliner Ensemble· in a
production prepared by Brecht and continued after his death by Erich
Engel. on 15 January 1957. Galileo was played by Ernst Busch, sets
designed by Caspar Neher. We are concerned mainly with the third
version.
(r) THE PLOT
Brecht designated the play 'biography' (Aj., 1, 274: 24.4.41). The term
'Life' in the title attaches it to two earlier plays: the early Marlowe
adaptation Life of Edward II, and The Mother, subtitled 'Life of the
Revolutionary Pelagea Vlassova from Tver'. After history made by
medieval kings and by the modern proletariat, we have history made
by a Renaissance man.
The scenes of Galileo are largely prefaced by dates: in some cases
a spread of years whose activities are to be exemplified in the scene,
in others a single turning-point in Galileo's fortunes.
Scene 1 [1609]: 'Galileo Galilei, teacher of Mathematics at Padua, deter-

mines to prove the new Copernican system.' Galileo after his morning wash
explains (in a conventional exposition) to his housekeeper's son, Andrea
Sarti, a ten-year-old budding physicist, the principles of the new view
of the universe: all is in motion; doubt is replacing belief; in astronomy,
the earth is thought to revolve around the sun. Signora Sarti, however,
has her doubts as to the new age Galileo announces: in order to pay
the milkman Galileo will need to take a private pupil, Ludovico Marsili.
a young noble interested in horses, who comes to introduce himself
and tells Galileo of the latest toy he has seen in Amsterdam: a tube
through which one sees distant objects magnified. Galileo sketches such
a thing for himself and sends Andrea to the lens-grinder's with half a
scudo borrowed from his next visitor, Priuli, the Curator of the Univers-
ity, who has come to turn down Galileo's request for an increase in
salary: the Republic of Venice feels it has done enough for a scientist
if it gives him a job and keeps the Inquisition off his back; what Galileo
teaches brings no money into the state; he should invent something
useful. if he wants to be rewarded. Galileo thinks of the telescope,
arranges the lenses Andrea (pawning his coat to do so) has bought.
and lets Andrea test the effect. Two unwelcome visits have changed the
course of Galileo's life.
Scene 2 [24 August 1609]: 'Galileo presents the Republic of Venice with
a new Discovery.' In the quest for his salary increase Galileo passes the
telescope off as his own invention at a ceremony in which he presents it
to the Doge and Senators. The Curator draws attention to its use in
war; Galileo's fifteen-year-old daughter Virginia performs the presenta-
tion; the lens-grinder sets up the instrument, and while it is being
examined Galileo tells his friend Sagredo what he has seen in the skies
with it. Virginia brings Ludovico who ironically compliments Galileo;
the Doge. a shy man, manages to get Galileo's attention and grant his
pay rise.
Scene 3 [10 January 1610; historical events of 7-13 January]: 'By means
of the Telescope Galileo discovers Phenomena in the Sky which prove the
Copernican System. Warned by his Friend against the possible Conse-
quences of his Researches. Galileo Professes his Belief in Man's Reason.'
Sagredo observes the moon through the telescope and Galileo interprets
what he sees: the moon is, like the earth, lit by the sun. Giordano
Bruno, burnt for heresy ten years before, was right. The Curator storms
in angry about the deception with the telescope which he has by now
discovered, refuses to be mollified by the promise of better star-charts
made with its aid to help navigation. and storms out. Galileo defends
himself to Sagredo: he needs money for Virginia's dowry, for books
and for food, and his telescope is much better than the Dutch one.
Returning to it, he notices that one of the satellites of Jupiter he has
observed is missing. He and Sagredo observe - there is an interruption
with the stage in darkness to suggest the passing of time - and calcu-
late: Jupiter has no crystal circle and there are no supports in space!
Sagredo is afraid: there is no room for God in space now either, and
trouble is bound to come- especially as Galileo espouses Bruno's heresy
The Life of Galileo 55
that God is within man. Galileo is more optimistic: he defends his
belief in people's reasonableness and thinks that now he has proofs he
can avoid Bruno's fate. To prove that reasonableness is common he calls
in Signora Sarti, who duly confirms that in her experience the small
revolves around the great. Virginia comes on her way to early mass;
Galileo treats her interest in the stars very shortly, but does tell her
he wants to get a job at Florence: there he can have time for research,
and money for the fleshpots. To this end he has - he tells Sagredo -
written a servile letter to the Grand Duke of Florence. The thought of
the monkish intellectual stagnation there is a challenge to him. But
Sagredo remains unconvinced.
Scene 4 [summary of activities of 1610-15]: 'Galileo has exchanged the

Republic of Venice for the Florentine Court. His Discoveries with the
Telescope Meet with Disbelief among the Savants there'. Signora Sarti
is dissatisfied with Florence and Galileo's status there. The young Grand
Duke Cosmo (Cosimo in the English translation), curious to see the
telescope, arrives early for a demonstration of it arranged by Galileo
and has a fight with Andrea, who wants to force the Copernican system
on him too dogmatically, until Galileo and the gentlemen of the uni-
versity arrive. Galileo speaks on the Ptolemaic and Copernican systems
and invites the scholars to examine through the telescope the satellites
of Jupiter, which he has christened Medicean Stars in honour of Cosimo;
but they prefer a theoretical discussion in Latin on the basis of Aris-
totle's authority, and hint that they do not trust a man whose associa-
tion with the telescope started with a fraud. Andrea finds them simply
stupid. Federzoni the lens-grinder reminds them that Aristotle had no
telescope, but Galileo becomes more and more obsequious, even as he
grows more and more insistent that they should not close their eyes to
changes which are all around them and have already been embraced by
artisans and sailors. However, they depart unmoved, promising to submit
the matter to the Vatican.
Scene 5 [unhistorical]: 'Undaunted even by the Plague Galileo Continues

his Researches.' (a) The plague breaks out as Galileo is in the middle of
a set of observations with which he hopes to silence his opponents. A
coach is sent by the Grand Duke to take him and his household to safety,
but Galileo wants to stay at his telescope; while Signora Sarti is arguing
with him the carriage goes without them. (b) Signora Sarti has dis-
appeared and is reported to be sick with the plague. The street is cor-
doned off by soldiers. Galileo is afraid of starving but an old woman
promises - and later brings - milk, Andrea turns up, having jumped off
the coach distraught at his mother's dangerous illness, but still able to
listen to the news that Venus describes a circle round the sun.
Scene 6 [unhistorical: in fact Clavius reported in 1611, but the Jesuits
dropped Copernicus in 1614]: '1616. The Collegium Romanum, the
Vatican's Institute of Research, Confirms Galileo's Discoveries.' Galileo
waits among a great crowd of clerics for the verdict of the Jesuits' ex-
pert, Clavius, on his theories. The mood is hostile to him: if the earth
is part of the heavens, and the heavens consist of worlds, how is theology
possible? Galileo must be a slave of his mathematical errors, the earth
must be the midpoint of the universe. But Clavius comes and pronounces
in Galileo's favour, The Grand Inquisitor arrives to look at the telescope.
Scene 7 [5 March 1616; historical events of 26 February to 5 March]. 'But

the Inquisition Puts the Copernican Teachings on the Index.' Cardinal
Bellarmin is holding a carnival ball; Galileo comes with Virginia and her
fianc~ Ludovico. He encourages two clerical secretaries to play chess with
the modern •long moves. Cardinals Bellarmin and Barberini come with
lamb and dove masks. Galileo competes with the latter in quoting the
Bible, a prelude to a more serious astronomical discussion in which
the Cardinals point out the dangers of accusing God of being bad at
astronomy. The authority of God is needed to reconcile people to the
roughness of the world, and they intend to assert it against Galileo, whom
they formally warn to give up the Copernican heresy, notwithstanding the
Collegium Romanum's recognition; he may use it as a hypothesis, a poor
consolation. The inquisitor afterwards reads the secretaries' transcript of
the conversation, and makes sure he knows who Virginia's confessor is.
Scene 8: 'A Conversation.' A little monk with astronomical leanings comes

to second, from his own experience, the Cardinals' views: only belief
that the eye of God is watching them keeps the poor reconciled to their
poverty and gives their life a meaning. Galileo is moved to contradict:
they suffer poverty in a fruitful land because they have to pay for the
Pope's wars and for presents intended to silence Galileo, and because
they are denied modern technology. Galileo might remain silent if heavily
enough bribed, but basically he knows that he must go on trying to dis-
cover and spread the truth, even if it leads to a catastrophe. The monk
joins him.
Scene 9 [historical events affecting the Papacy, but the experiments were
undertaken earlier, 1611-13]: 'After Eight Years of Silence, the Enthrone-
ment of a New Pope, Himself a Mathematician, Encourages Galileo to
Resume his Researches into the Forbidden Subject of Sun-spots.' Galileo
holds an experimental lecture for Federzoni, the little monk and Andrea
while Virginia and Signora Sarti sew at Virginia's trousseau. Galileo has
written nothing for years. He is sarcastic to Mucius, a former pupil of his
who has condemned Copernican theories when he should have known
better. Virginia and Signora Sarti are more interested in the astrological
portents for her marriage. The appearance of a new tract on sunspots inter-
ests Galileo's pupils, but he forces himself to remain silent in fear of the
Church: sunspots involve Copernican theory. They experiment on float-
ing bodies and Galileo shows that a needle can be made to float on
water.
Ludovico comes. Galileo welcomes the interruption and has wine
fetched. Ludovico has news from Rome: the Pope is dying and Barber-
ini, a mathematician, will probably be the next Pope. Galileo shows life
immediately and wants to start investigating sunspots again, deaf to
the warnings of Ludovico and Signora Sarti that Barberini is not yet
Pope and, even when he is, will have to think of keeping the nobility on
his side. Signora Sarti says she knows Galileo has been secretly working
on sunspots for two months, and warns him that Ludovico will drop
Virginia if her father persists in heresy. Galileo, however, is unstoppable
and annoys Ludovico- whom he likes less with every mouthful of wine
(Mat. G., 63f.)- by hinting that he could sow revolt among the peasants.
Ludovico goes without taking leave of Virginia, who is putting on her
wedding gown to show him. Galileo proceeds to his observations of the
sun, as Virginia returns, realises Ludovico is lost, and faints.
Scene 10 [unhistorical]: 'During the following Decade Galileo's Teach-

ing Spreads among the People. Pamphleteers and Ballad-singers Every-
where Take up the New Ideas. In 1632, during Carnival time, many Cities
in Italy choose Astronomy as the Theme for the Guilds' Processions.'
A couple of poor travelling artistes sing the latest song from Florence,
which shows the social consequences of abandoning the geocentric view
of the heavens: people want to escape the domination of employers,
priests and husbands, as the heavenly bodies have that of the earth; the
Bible is discredited. The carnival procession includes tableaux such as
Galileo holding a Bible whose pages are crossed through.
Scene 11 [1633; historically 11 October 1632]: 'The Inquisition Sum-

mons the World-famous Scholar to Rome.' Galileo, shadowed by an
agent of the Inquisition, waits to present his new book to the Grand
Duke of Florence; the Rector of the University scarcely notices him, but
an ironfounder. Vanni, is very friendly (scientific, technical, and mer-
cantile progress is important to him) and advises Galileo to avoid the
consequences of his increasing reputation as a heretic by fleeing to
Venice in Vanni's coach. Galileo however trusts to Cosimo to protect him;
he himself has after all had nothing to do with the popular interpretations
of his work. When an official is rude, Galileo wonders whether to go after
all; but it would mean saying goodbye to three months' pay he is owed.
The Grand Duke comes, embarrassed, and refuses to accept Galileo's
book: an official asks Galileo to step into the Inquisition's coach which
awaits him.
Scene 12: 'The Pope.' Pope Urban VIII (Barberini) receives the Inquisitor.
He is inclined to defend the new theories, but the Inquisitor stresses
the consequences of the growth of doubt in terms of social unrest at a
time when the papacy can ill afford it, being involved in religious wars -
on the Protestant side, at that. Galileo will make the heavens subject to
reason rather than God, whilst his machines will destroy the existing
master-servant relationships. If the maritime cities insist on the heretical
star-charts, they will have to have them- but the theories on which the
charts are based must be rejected. The Pope is now persuaded that some-
thing must be done; the Inquisitor strengthens his resolve by pointing
out that Galileo cheated in his book by giving the last word in the dia-
logues to the spokesman of religion as agreed - but making the spokes-
man of religion a fool. Urban agrees to let Galileo be threatened with
torture, which will be enough to make him deny Copernicus.
Scene 13: 'On the 22nd of June, 1633, before the Inquisition, Galileo
Galilei Recants his Teaching about the Movement of the Earth.' Galileo's
pupils .and Virginia wait for the outcome of Galileo's trial. Andrea fears
he will be killed, for he will never recant, and his 'Discorsi' will remain
unwritten. Federzoni is not so sure. Virginia prays. The set time for his
recantation comes and goes and the pupils are glad: but the bell tolls
after all, Virginia is glad, and outside the recantation is read. Andrea is
bitter when Galileo comes, but Galileo, though altered by suffering, re-
mains calm and rejects the idea that he should have showed heroism.
An extract from the 'Discorsi' is read to show that great machines are
more fragile than small ones.
Scene 14 [1633-42]: 'Galileo Galilei lives in a Country House near Flor-

ence, a Prisoner of the Inquisition until his Death. The "Discorsi" .'
Galileo, old and half-blind, is experimenting with a ball in a groove. A
monk is on duty to see that he writes nothing. Two geese are sent from
someone passing through: Galileo shows appetite, although he has
already dined. Virginia insists that he dictate to her part of his weekly
letter to the Archbishop, in which he shows orthodox theological know-
ledge and supplies arguments in favour of the social status quo. Andrea,
on his way out of Italy to continue his researches in Holland, comes to
see Galileo, and reports how since the recantation many scientists have
lost heart. Galileo hides his disappointment. He manages to get Virginia
out of the way in the kitchen, then - all the time anxious because of the
monk who may be listening outside - tells Andrea he has finished the
'Discorsi', delivered the manuscript to the Church, and at great risk
made a copy which is hidden inside his globe: if Andrea takes it, he
must not betray where he got it from. Andrea takes it and interprets
Galileo's behaviour: he recanted in order to be able to work on, re-
treated from a hopeless position. Galileo, excited, forgetting the danger
from the monk, and not stopped by Virginia's return, 2 contradicts him:
only fear of pain made him recant. He has delivered the scientific work,
but now he feels that is not enough; science has used the new-found in-
strument of critical doubt to understand the skies, but failed to put it to
work to ease the life of people in general; indeed, new machines and dis-
coveries will merely contribute to their oppression, since scientists will
have no independence of the oppressing classes; and Galileo lost his
chance, when he was relatively strong (this contradicts what was said
at the time), to reverse this; he is no longer a scientist or fit to shake
Andrea's hand. Andrea disagrees, but Virginia inhibits further argument
and he has to leave.
Scene 15 [unhistorical]: '1637. Galileo's Book, the 'Discorsi', crosses the

Italian Border.' Andrea waits to go through the customs examination at
the frontier and talks to children, one of whom is despised by the others
but shows more critical intelligence. The customs men have not time to
read all Andrea's books, and do not notice the manuscript which he carries
in his hand and reads all the time. Andrea buys and leaves behind milk
for a woman who is suspected of witchcraft and thus generally refused
milk; encourages the bright boy; and crosses the frontier.
(11) GALILEO, SCIENCE AND THE BOURGEOIS ERA
The play is unusual in its concentration on the content of science. As-

tronomy and hydrostatics are made present on the stage. But so are the
scientist's mentality and the way in which science runs his life for him.
The physical demonstrations on stage are part of the plot, and have
practical implications: floating a needle is part of a study of hydro-
statics important for building bigger ships. 3 In that Galileo is a scientist,
we learn from him, not (empathetically) with him. The naive, critical,
unprejudiced vision Brecht noted in the scientists of his own day, which
strips away from things the familiarity of idees re(:ues and makes them
new in the mind, is exemplified in him. He puts the authority of Aristotle
to the test and refutes it by making metal float (1304; 85; 9). The moral
victory, at least, goes to the new science against the old obscurantism.
Galileo is modern in his attitude to evidence too, declaring he will ex-
plore every alternative theory before reluctantly accepting the bold revo-
lutionary one (1311; 91; 9). Doubt is the way to discovery. Novelties
may be ephemeral unless existing convictions really have failed to provide
satisfactory explanations of things. Brecht means the same attitude to
apply to social phenomena; he was as wary of those who always propa·
gate revolution as of unshakable conservatives (20, 6f.: Uber den
Gewohnheitspatriotismus).
Galileo opens with a great speech on the new age he thinks has dawned
(1232£.; 20ff.; 1). The telescope symbolises the strivings of this age and
of Galileo. within it: to provide empirical evidence for the cosmology of
Copernicus, according to whom the earth and planets revolve around the
sun. whereas in the ancient, officially accepted Ptolemaic system all
heavenly bodies are centred on the earth. Giordano Bruno had been burnt
at the stake in 1600 after upholding such views; Galileo thinks he would
have escaped had he been able to offer physical proof (1255; 41; 3). Such
proof depends on the evidence of the senses; Galileo is down-to-earth
enough to learn from the workers who, relying on their senses, bring
about technological progress (1230; 55; 4). That the workers in fact are
interested in astronomy and its implications - that men are open to
reason- seems apparent to Brecht in The Mother, where Pelagea Vlassova
backs up one of her revolutionary arguments by saying no one believes
in God any more since the skies are measurable (2. 883). What does not
occur to Galileo is that the audience to which he praises the workers'
spirit of innovation is one which has everything to lose from an altera-
tion of the status quo. He believes that even such people must accept
the evidence of their senses and trust truth not to lead them astray. He
is wrong. The unwillingness of the Church and its tame philosophers to
look through a telescope and believe what they see is powerful enough
to conquer him. This subject had interested Brecht since 1920. 'Coper-
nicus' discovery . . . is first shot down. then declared to be correct and
perfectly insignificant . . . That is a cheek that cannot but suceeed'
(Tb .. 43: 31.8.20). It is mainly the cheek with which the Church over-
rides logic that makes Galileo speechless when told of the decree in scene
7. Brecht suggested parallels with Darwin and Freud, both of whom with
their new ideas and methods seemed scandalous to their contemporary
establishments. irrespective of their objective rightness or otherwise.
To Galileo reason is irresistible. 'The temptation offered by such a proof
is too great . . . Thinking is one of the greatest pleasures of the human
race' (1256; 42; 3). Signora Sarti supplies the social equivalent when
she shows that the small revolve around the great (1257£.; 43; 3). People
reason for a purpose: the child puts on his cap when told it may rain
(1256; 42; 3). Such utilitarian ideas, typical of Brecht, belong less to
the historical Galileo than to a philosophical tradition going from Hoi-
bach and Helvetius through Feuerbach, for whom the good is what serves
the general egoism. to Lenin. 4
On a purely scientific level, however. the physical concepts we associ-
ate with Copernicus (and with Newton) need modification in the twentieth
century; Einstein and Heisenberg dominate our ideas. Brecht possessed
A. S. Eddington's book The Nature of the Physical World, in German
translation, 5 and was able historically to overlook the whole era of
'classical' physics. What is more, he sees it as coterminous with the era of
capitalism. In connection with his late play Turandot, which deals par-
ticulary with the intellectual prostituting his talents for short-term per-
sonal advantages, he writes: 'Particularly after I had written The Life of
Galileo, in which I had described the dawning of reason, I was interested
in depicting its twilight, the evening of precisely that kind of reason which
towards the end of the sixteenth century had opened the capitalist age'
(5, 3*). In a sweeping transposition of history, Brecht considers the be-
ginning of the science of the bourgeois age in the light of the ending
of that age - and condemns in it the whole era. This hostile intention,
appearing in the second version, is much clearer in the third, where the
social questions affecting the status of science are given lengthier and
more precise statement in Galileo's self-analysis.
To clarify this we must return to the first version. In the 1930s Brecht
is able to see Galileo as a positive model of behaviour for the intellec-
tuals and scientists in Nazi Germany. 6 The play has been described as
a dramatic version of the essay Funf Schwierigkeiten beim Schreiben der
Wahrheit ('Five Difficulties in Writing the Truth'): Galileo practises the
courage, wisdom and cunning to recognise and spread the truth in a
hostile world. In the argument about whether to investigate sunspots
or not, he tells the story of Keunos, a Cretan philosopher who served an
agent of tyranny for seven years without saying yes to the man's ques-
tion 'Will you serve me?'; after the man's death he said 'No'. Brecht had
published this story independently in 1930, and its basic lesson is: wait
until the time for resistance is ripe. 7 During his house-arrest depicted in
his last scene, Galileo gives the results of his surreptitious writing to a
tiler who repeatedly visits him on the pretext of repairing the chimney
and smuggles his manuscripts out; but now he has increasing difficulties
and has brought back a manuscript which Galileo hides inside a globe.
In the 1938 version, Virginia reads Galileo aphorisms by Montaigne which
he comments on, showing his questioning and rebellious spirit unbroken;
in 1939 this is replaced by a more matter-of-fact element, the revision
of a passage of the 'Discorsi' (the passage read in the final version after
scene 13). To Andrea, Galileo says that the scientist has a duty to fight
for the freedom of science against force, and this means fighting against
lies and for the good of mankind. He has failed in this duty. But he still
researches, his notes are in the globe though his writings are delivered
to the Inquisition, and if anyone came around looking for useful things
in the debris of his career (his authority has been shattered by his recan-
tation), they will treat it as the work of a discredited researcher. Andrea
takes the manuscript; he believes that Galileo's fall has left most of his
work intact. Galileo reflects on the need for the exercise of reason to
develop more and turn the new age from one of darkness into one of
light.
Details show that, although Brecht disclaimed the intention of proving
anything in it (Aj., 2, 747: 30.7.45), the historical play is closely con-
nected with the present. For instance, Galileo's house-arrest is shown
as more closely supervised than in reality. His letters are opened. The
historical parallel construction is this: in a time of basic social progress
(with the rise of Communism). a progressive thinker finding himself under
an authoritarian regime (Germany) withdraws under the threat of tor-
ture; but recanting his views means that he survives, though shamefully,
to work on in co-operation with the tiler (working-class resistance to
Hitler) and use his talents to weaken the regime in the long run. Brecht
has put aside the revolutionary heroism of Saint ]oan of the Stockyards
and The Mother in order to show survival under pressure. Thought and
truth are for Brecht necessarily socially good: with Goebbels in mind he
had written 'Propaganda for thinking. in whatever area it is made, is
useful to the cause of the oppressed' {18, 235: Funf Schwierigkeiten .. .).
That Galileo's survival allows him to go on with his scientific work,
which aids the proletariat. is more important than the setback of his
recantation - which however makes him a closer model for a German
scientist who by 1938 will have made many surrenders to Hitler, but can
still take the right path now. All the implications of Galileo's scientific
pioneerhood are seen as relevant to the present; the bourgeois revolt
against feudalism as a positive historical parallel to the proletarian re-
volt against capitalism, the temporary setback of the former in the play
as a precursor of the latter's embarrassment at a time when Hitler's
misleading ideas of what is progressive seem to be winning (with the
Munich agreement and Franco's victory in Spain- see the Foreword of
1939: 17, 1103-6; Mat. G., 7-10; G., 5-7).
Galileo is however a questionable model of a resistance worker. He
does not plan his actions, and his behaviour before the Inquisition is so
unworthy, his reaction to danger so timid, as to vitiate the theme. 8 By
the time Brecht came to revise the play in 1944, this interpretation was in
any case inopportune. The time for exhorting German intellectuals to
cheat Hitler was past. And another aspect of Galileo's work had occurred
to Brecht in 1939 with the news of the splitting of the uranium atom
by Hahn and Strassmann:
Knowledge of the nature of things, so greatly and so ingeniously

deepened and widened, is incapable, unless joined by knowledge of
the nature of man and of human society in its entirety, of making
supremacy over nature a source of happiness for mankind {15, 295:
Uber experimentelles Theater).
The addition he at first made to the text was an optimistic one, referring
to 'the greatest discoveries, which must increase the prosperity of man-
kind immeasurably'. 9 But it was increasingly obvious that modern science,
of which Galileo with his insistence on experimentation and evidence was
a father, had become mainly a weapon of war. Even in 1939 chain re-
actions which could destroy the world were becoming thinkable. Instead
of being accepted unexamined as a progressive force, science is in the
second version critically looked at. News of the first use of the atomic
bomb, arriving after completion of the provisional second version, gave
the expression of disquiet greater urgency. 'Overnight the biography of
the founder of the new system of physics read differently' (17, 1106;
G., 8; Mat. G., 10). By 1952, the date of the first hydrogen bomb, the
threat was much clearer and the end of the world as a result of the con-
flict of the capitalist democracies and the U.S.S.R. seemed likely. Such
events as the hearings in the case of J. Robert Oppenheimer, declared a
security risk in the U.S. because of his scruples about developing nuclear
weapons (195 3), proved to Brecht that Galileo was topical and led him
to work on the third version and staging of the play.
The textual references to the atom are easily overlooked, though they
can be clarified in production and are present in the introductory verse
to scene 15 (used in production as an epilogue to the whole play) and
the poems Prolog zur amerikanischen Auffuhrung ('Prologue to the Ameri-
can Production', 10, 936) and Epilog der Wissenschaftler ('Epilogue of
the Scientists', 10, 93 7): 'For they dedicate their findings I to the fleec-
ing of mankind I till their last one turns the tables I till the gnomic I
white atomic I one finishes you and us and the world.' Brecht was not
so simple as to make the play depend on one topical message. That this
is possible was shown later by Heinar Kipphardt's documentary play In
der Sache ]. Robert Oppenheimer, with its single. hard-hitting message
about the bomb. Brecht's plays are rarely like that (perhaps Senora
Carrar's Rifles is closest to it). The final version of Galileo still contains
passages which can be taken to restate the moral of the first version -
propaganda for thinking is always good- or to support quite different
lessons. Andrea is allowed to state that Galileo's self-analysis will not be
the last word (1342; 119; 14).
In the later versions Brecht grafts on to the parallels between 1633
and 1933, seen in the first version, a different concept: the atomic bomb
is one of the logical destructive results of a capitalist era which (as in
the meantime Brecht had shown in Mother Courage) makes no qualitative
distinction between peace and war- both states of Darwinian compe-
tition; and the failure to make such distinctions, the readiness of the
potentially independent individual to sell out to the powers-that-be and
further their aggressive intentions, goes right back to the beginning
of the bourgeois era and Galileo's betrayal- as Brecht sees it-
of social progress. In this sense Galileo's new age is to be seen more
than critically: the bourgeois age has merely added fresh horrors to the
feudalist system's existing iniquities. The sketches for a foreword to the
lJlay shed much light on the theme of the beginning and the end of
the bourgeois era as seen in the aspect of science and in the model case
of Galileo. The main arguments are these. The bourgeoisie exploits
Galileo's objective reason and isolates the world of 'pure' science in
order to incorporate it better with bourgeois politics, economics, ideology.
Galileo develops the productive ideas which are the germ of the English
and Dutch Industrial Revolutions, but on the social front he betrays their
productive aspect (17, 1133; Mat. G., 36). Pure science produces the
equation E=mc 2 ; others derive from it the destruction of Hiroshima. War
encourages science- but how? Hitler's prisons provide experimental
material for doctors. In the Second World War scientists get their hands
on the means of production- and they produce destruction, till it
threatens to engulf them along with everyone else. Hitler was perhaps
an excrescence of capitalism- but capitalism was, in that case, a system
that lent itself to making excrescences (17, 1112-5; Mat. G. 16-20).
The whole era of the bourgeois contained from its beginning the seeds
both of the Hitlerian excesses and of the atomic bomb, and the false
relationship of science and authority is an important problem.
Brecht does not claim that it is the sole problem, but that once the
challenge to the Church's feudal authority has been made in the scientific
field and to the benefit of the rising bourgeoisie, the Church's victory
over Galileo is a catastrophe which distorts the whole following histori-
cal development. The hold of the feudalists on power is strengthened
just when it could perhaps have been broken. Had Galileo kept quiet
like Copernicus until his death, or had he like Giordano Bruno remained
steadfast, this distortion would not have taken place; the development of
science might have been delayed, but the precedent for its betrayal to
feudalism by a great thinker would not have been given, there would
have been no threat of a 'race of inventive dwarfs who can be hired for
anything' (1341; 118; 14; cf. Mat. G., 61). Galileo has had a warning
of the threat in the behaviour of Mucius, whom he and Federzoni found
dangerous precisely because having heard Galileo's teachings he had
denied them, so that people said 'he's heard everything that Galilei
teaches and he has to admit that it's all false' (1300; 81; 9): not know-
ing the truth is stupid, knowingly denying it criminal. Galileo, devoted
to scientific truth, reminds Mucius that he did not let the plague inter-
rupt his work. Mucius says 'the plague is not the worst thing' (ibid.);
and indeed, Galileo crumbles at the sight of the instruments. Andrea
now takes over as the proponent of the duty of truth, reminding us
(1326; 105; 13) of Galileo's reproach to Mucius. In scene 14 Andrea re-
vises his view of Galileo's recantation, making it the basis of a new
ethics (1338; 115) in which one is allowed to run away from a hopeless
political struggle in order to guarantee the continuation of scientific
progress. Andrea builds up theories to suit his professional interests
whilst disregarding the interests of the masses; he is the first inventive
dwarf. 'Science knows only one commandment: contribute to science',
he says, to Galileo's disgust (1339; 116). Even in the first version Galileo
rejects any idea that he recanted in order to work on: contributions to
science can be made by anyone, physics is not served by one person's
survival. When Andrea in one speech approves of Galileo's popularising
science by bowing to Cosimo, in the next dismisses the recantation as
affecting merely 'a popular point in your teachings' (1338; 116), his con-
tempt of the non-scientist and disregard of social needs are apparent. 10
Any advances in science he and his successors bring about will play into
the hands- of the rulers. The opportunity to make the course of history
more humane has been lost. The scientist's two responsibilities, to the
work alone (a pure scientist's view analogous to l'art pour l'art in cul-
ture11) and to all mankind, are sometimes congruent, sometimes not,
and it is illicit for Andrea to make the former into an absolute ideal.
Galileo represents, at least potentially, a more promising tradition.
Scientific advances, water pumps for example (1296; 78), can further the
better society which would foster positive virtues; but only if the in-
ventor does not let the selfish classes exploit his work. To avoid this
error Galileo-Brecht suggests the scientist's Hippocratic oath (1341;
118; 14)- hopelessly idealistic, yet the only hopeful solution. The scien-
tist- most topically, in Brecht's day, the nuclear physicist- must see his
·work as a partial process in society, not as 'pure' or value-free. Brecht
thought the sentence 'I maintain that the only purpose of science is to
ease the hardship of human existence' (1340; 118) was 300 years ahead
of its time. 12 He must have forgotten his use of points of contact with
the seventeenth century in progressive Holland and England. He mentions
Holland, and gives Galileo statements borrowed or adapted from Bacon
and Hobbes. 13 Bacon is the source for views on supposed riches meaning
real poverty, on science as work against infinite error rather than to-
wards infinite truth- and, importantly, on science as a means to further
man's enjoyment of life. Korsch thought Bacon did for natural science
what Marx did for social science; 14 Schumacher (pp. 42ff.) thinks him
just as important as Galileo for the philosophy of the play; and Brecht's
notes include reference to Bacon's venality- a counterpart to the sensu-
ality with which he endows Galileo {17, 1112f.; Mat. G., 16).
By concentrating such wide-ranging thoughts on the use and misuse
of science, and about the whole power-structure of our era, around the
figure of Galileo. Brecht lays himself open to the reproach at least of an
un-Marxist cult of personality- as if Galileo could have altered history
single-handed; at most, of a gross unfairness to Galileo, who had not
even invented a destructive weapon. The first criticism- Harold Hobson's

'God that failed' thesis 15 - has some justification. It is a priori unlikely
that a single act of one man could change three centuries of history,
historically false to suggest that Galileo held the balance of power in
1633, and perverse to disregard the example of Giordano Bruno, which
shows that martydrom at that time for that cause was useless. On the
other hand, Brecht believed that individual decisions have a real effect,
and he has a right to teach (here as in Mother Courage) that the personal
decisions of people who do not claim to be politicians or public leaders
can be very important. The more serious criticism of unfairness to
Galileo, propounded notably by Ernst Busch in discussions before the
first Berlin performance, is a misunderstanding: what Brecht wants to
emphasise is that even apparently useful technological innovations do no
good if they are taken over by the ruling classes and do not improve the
lot of the peasants. Galileo's social betrayal is the catastrophe- not the
nature of his scientific work as such. Capitalist peace production and
capitalist war production are linked for the Marxist. Thus Galileo be-
comes the anti-hero and in his last scene is no longer seen co-operating
with the proletariat, but meekly supplying arguments for the authorities
in their dispute with the workers. It is lip-service- but still service- to
feudalism.
Yet Brecht writes, 'The Life of Galileo is not a Tragedy' (G., 10; 17,
1109; Mat. G., 13). 16 The new age described in scene 1 does exist des-
pite setbacks. The final scene - though never performed - still stands
in the book, propagating the thought 'Bespattered don't mean tattered'
(1343; 120): the catastrophe is not as final as Galileo makes out. This
is admittedly contrary to Brecht's personal view towards the end of his
life (17, 1133; Mat. G., 37), when in the light of the atom bomb his
verdict on science in the bourgeois era was the one we have just sketched;
but Brecht considers dealing with inconsistencies the reader's job, not his
own. Galileo does not give in inwardly to obscurantism: he dictates a
clearly satirical passage in his servile letter (13 33; 111; 14). though he
then has it struck out. More forward-looking is the riposte to Andrea in
scene 13: 'No. Unhappy is the land that is in need of heroes' (1329;
108). As in Fear and Misery of the Third Reich a rainy day is an immedi-
ate catastrophe (one's son may get bored and go and denounce one to the
Nazis). but the underlying catastrophe is fascism, so here the recanta-
tion is in the foreground, but the real catastrophe is any system which
makes too great demands on human nature. Mother Courage gives the
theme earthier expression, Shen Teh more poetic; but Galileo has the
greatest dialectical neatness.
There are three autobiographical glosses on the play. In one, Brecht
in the U.S., before the Committee on Un-American Activities, denied his
Communism (a recantation). then fled the country to continue the
struggle against capitalist warmongers. In another, Brecht in East Germany
compromised with the regime for selfish reasons and, despite private
qualms, publicly supported its repressions (particularly in 1953). These
two do shed a little light on the way Brecht moulded some aspects of
his behaviour on models, but should be taken with salt. 17 A third inter-
pretation has Galileo as an anti-Brecht '-':ho goes to totalitarian Florence,
whereas Brecht in the thirties had refused to settle in totalitarian
Russia.18
{III) GALILEO: SPLIT CHARACTER
Comic elements provide an important key to Galileo. He is an intellectual

Falstaff. a man of superabundant energy and overflowing physicality. He
is a compulsive teacher; and a fool who demands proof of any scientific
doctrine but embarks on the study of sunspots with no evidence at all
that it is safe to do so. He plays with fire and brings about the situations
of the play by rashness, most of all when he refuses Vanni's help to
escape the Inquisition although he has himself anticipated the situation
and has a getaway vehicle of his own. He is the activator who carries
the plot forward, from the plagiarism of the telescope on; the hero who
dominates the stage, not least with the breathtaking scope of his scien-
tific inquiries; the raisonneur who keeps the audience informed of the
intellectual issues; the clown who keeps us laughing. Like a comic servant
he tricks the Curator with the telescope to get his pay rise; and Brecht
pushes the Curator into the role of the pompous, self-righteous master
who is the butt and victim of the sly servant. Brecht is concerned to
keep the comic element under control- to exaggerate it would minimise
the moral import of Galileo's dishonesty. But Brecht has to admit the
claim to have based the invention on 'Christian principles' {1246; 33)
is amusingly provocative (Mat. G., 54). Comic effects are useful in pre-
venting too serious an empathy with the figure. Brecht at first wanted
to use controlled self-identification with the hero, since the audience
would then have to identify with Galileo's self-condemnation too (Aj.,
1, 35: 23.11.38). But this is hard in practice, and later on Brecht
stresses Galileo's failures and finds it necessary to warn that his self-
reproaches should not be used to produce pity for him. Then identifica-
tion and distance are better balanced: his vitality is that of an alien
phenomenon, like Richard III (Mat. G., 47). The interpretation of the role
of Galileo depends on this balance. His failures must be stressed as they
occur, or the self-condemnation will come as a surprise and puzzle the
audience. Brecht aids this by some of the other characters' dialogue. Dis-
appointment at his recantation for instance, is emphasised by Andrea's
reminder that Galileo condemned Mucius for denying the truth. And in
scene 13 Galileo (in Laughton's interpretation) comes on grinning and
infantile, lacking in self-discipline- an easy victim for threats of force.
His character falls short of his intellect - the intellect which allows him
with the neat riposte to Andrea to shift the blame on to the country
he lives in (1329; 108; 13).
It is important that he is shown as a gourmet. His weakness for food
is brought into parallel not only with his all-too-vivid sensual ideas of
what instruments of torture can do, but with his weakness for experi-
ment and innovation (132f.; 103; 12). He pursues the fleshpots in a
society which, whilst still dominated by powers inimical to innovations,
yet has its progressive forces. The same contradictions and problems are
thus at work in Galileo's personality and in his situation. His sensuality
now furthers, now hinders progress; now he espouses the progressive
cause, now be blinds himself to the evils of the existing system. Society
now accepts the results of his work, now persecutes him for its prin-
ciples.
After the Inquisition's condemnation of Copernican theory he believes
he has a balanced relationship with the Church. The Jesuits after all
praised him (1289; 72; 7); the Church lets him keep his authority on
condition he does not use it aggressively. He thinks he has fulfilled the
pact by sticking to its letter, presenting Copernican theory in a dialogue
and giving the last word to faith and Aristotle (1324; 103; 12); he pub-
licly rejects the popular interpretation of his theories as encouraging
anarchy (1319; 98; 11) and thinks his position secure: 'They praised me
so highly that now they must accept me as I am' (1320; 99; 11). But
the over-popularity of the anarchistic interpretation of his work leads
him into renewed conflict with the Church and catastrophe. And when
he works on after his condemnation and lets Andrea take his results
away he is knowingly working into the hands of the ruling class, by
delivering knowledge into a world so arranged that knowledge is a means
of oppression, 19 as much as when he recanted out of fear of torture. He
regrets his urge to get his work published- but he yields to it (Mat. G.,
71 and 73). He has always gone his own ways- sometimes, as in the
telescope episode, crooked ones- to reach his aims: sensual and scien-
tific gratification. 'To an old wine or a new idea, he cannot say no' (1324;
103; 12). He cannot resist working on sunspots as soon as he has the
faintest idea that a new Pope may countenance the publication of his
findings (1307£.; 88; 9). In the last scene, it is goose-livers he cannot
refuse - an unheroic touch to counter any admiration the audience may
feel for him, an undignified overfed old man who !aughts unkindly at
the misery his downfall has caused Federzoni (1335; 113; 14; see Mat.
G., 69f.). In seeking his own ends he is a bourgeois individualist just
as is Vanni with his 'liberty to make money' (1318; 97; 11). The tele-
scope presents itself to him in just this light. A poor man, dejected when
told he cannot have more salary, he sees it as a way of making money at
the price of interrupting his real work (Mat. G., 53). But then if he were
not the great sensualist he would not be the genius he is either. Sensu-
ality is basically positive: Ziffel defends good living in a section of the
Refugees' Conversations called On low Materialism (14, 1392f.) and
complains in Thought as an Enjoyment that thinking, which should be a
pleasure, is spoilt like other pleasures by being yoked into the money
nexus (14, 1482f.). Brecht sees Galileo's demands for physical comforts
as justified; he furnished his own rooms with solid comfortable furniture
and insisted on plenty of space to work. Galileo is conceived by Brecht
(who complained at the German mistrust of the sensual and corporeal:
'our heroes engage in conviviality, but do not eat'- Aj., 1, 19; 12.8.38)
from the beginning as a man who loves physics as he loves food, not
ethereal but 'a noisy, full-blooded man with humour, the type of the
new physicist, earthly, a great- teacher. Favourite posture: belly forwards,
two hands on his two buttocks, head back, always gesticulating- though
not with sweeping movements- with one fleshy hand .. .' (Mat. G., 27).
Such sexual adventures as occurred to Brecht for him- notably an affair
with Andrea's sister20 - are moved for the sake of economy, though
there are hints that Galileo and Signora Sarti are closer than they admit. 21
When excited, she relapses from the formal mode of address into the
familiar 'du' (1308, cf. 1306f.; 88, 'Galileo', cf. 87, 'Signor Galilei'; 9).
In scene 5, when he refuses to leave Florence, she transfers to the
familiar form in the middle of an exclamation: 'Herr Galileil Komm
sofort mit! Du bist wahnsinnig' (1273). When the coach has gone with-
out them both she recovers her composure and formality, while it is
his tum to relapse (as he often does when they are alone) into familiar-
ity and colloquialism.
Galileo's general culture is not without its sex-bound side, as when
he quotes a Priapic passage from Horace (1297; 78: 8. Horace, Satires
I, viii, 1-3). But generally sex is underplayed in favour of greed. Love
of food is emphasised as a danger- that is, a vice in given social circum-
stances.
No one's virtue is complete:

Great Galileo likes to eat. (1246; 32; 2)
Such is Brecht's explanation of the deception with the telescope. And

in a magnificent duality in scene 9, Galileo interrupts a c::>nversation with
Ludovico about the pleasures of wine - 'I enjoy the consolations of the
flesh . . . I say: enjoyment is an accomplishment' (1306; 87)- to tell
Andrea to move the apparatus of the floating body experiments: he is
about to enjoy working on sunspots again. At the beginning of the play
he delivers his great monologue while Andrea rubs his back: his pro-
duction of ideas is directly dependent on animal pleasure, 'he would
have to stop thinking if Andrea stopped rubbing his back' (17, 1128;
Mat. G., 31). And when society stops giving him sensual gratification,
why should he not betray it?
Galileo is not pulled between idea and reality like some classical hero:
he is attracted by two mutually exclusive realities. One of the two con-
nected facets of his character makes him a man of public importance;
the other stops him from using this position responsibly in the face of
social pressures. He produces the ideas on which a social revolution
could be based, he knows it, and he betrays the idea of the revolution.
He is a genuine hero who becomes a genuine criminal, a fallen man; 22
a born teacher whose example ruins his best pupil; a philanthropist of
brutal egoism. He, and reason and progress with hpn, triumphs and
fails - part of the dialectic of intellectual and social history seen through
one man. Brecht saw the same contrasts in Faust, enlightened intellectual
and social criminal. 28 Eisler compares his vacillations to those of Hamlet
and of Schiller's Wallenstein. 24 Even during his last scene he changes
his attitude and contradicts himself several times.
He is aware of conflicting demands made on him by the powers-that-be
and by the rising classes. In scene 4 he defends Federzoni's right to hear
scientific arguments in the vernacular {1266; 51); in scene 8 he is in-
terested .in the social dimension of science, arguing against the thesis
of the necessity of poverty the view that there are virtues stemming
from prosperity and happiness, preferable to those necessary to bear
misery (1295; 77f.). But after his talk with Vanni he short-sightedly
denies any in.:erest in the consequences of his science. 25 After his re-
cantation he works on, and even lets Andrea take his results, contrary
to his better insight that publication of the 'Discorsi' will only be a
further step in the subjection of science (17, 1130-2; Mat. G., 33-5). Pre-
cisely this work on mechanics begins the scientific development which
will eventually bring about the Industrial Revolution, as Brecht knew;
the threat in Galileo's self-accusation 'your machines will represent noth-
ing but new means of oppression' (1340; 118; 14) refers to this. In fact
while making him act in a reactionary manner and play into the hands
of the oppressors, Brecht puts the positive message of the play into
his mouth. The passage culminating 'The fight over the measurability of
the heavens has been won by doubt; but the fight of the Roman house-
wife for milk is ever and again lost through faith' (1340; 117f.; 14)
is a poetic version of ideas of Einstein's which Brecht quotes in Uber
experimentelles Theater: that progress in natural science has outstripped
the progress of economic security and the moral development of man-
kind (15, 296). Galileo reproaches himself for not standing up against
the Church when there was time, astronomy was topical and he was
as strong as the authorities (1341; 118), and echoes Einstein's proposal
to take the argument about warfare and the atom out on to the market-
places of the U.S. 26 Thus he becomes his own judge, unmasks himself
as contemptible - but also rises in our esteem because he sees so clearly
the grounds for despising himself. The audience can, whatever Brecht
intended, identify with him to some extent even at the end. 27 The
alternative is to see Galileo very much as the raisonneur, stepping out
of his role when he delivers his lessons.
In Refugees' Conversations Brecht mentions the political 'heroic age'
of Hitler as making life harder for the average man, just when tech-
nology seemed to be making life easier (14, 1497). Similarly Galileo is an
average-to-cowardly man in a heroic age, and his forgivable weakness
decrees that science, instead of putting technological advance at the
disposal of the forces of liberation, and bringing a critical attitude to
bear on the Church, shall sell out to the powers-that-be. The play opens
up the perspective of a rational, egalitarian society- culminating in the
overt revolutionary message of the carnival scene; and then shows how
this end is frustrated by human weakness. Truth depends on Galileo
(1297; 79; 8), and he betrays it. Truth here is a social value, science
and society are dialectically related, and unless the scientist has social
integrity and the idea of a social aim to be served by his work, the
work is harmful. Perhaps the main tragedy of Galileo is not the over-
whelming effect of fate or even of circumstances, nor the tragic flaw of
character leading to his recantation, but a wrong decision blindly made,
when Galileo, not knowing his friends from his enemies, refuses Vanni's
help and relies instead on Cosima's protection. Brecht saw this as a re-
cantation more serious than that before the Inquisition (Mat. G., 65).
Galileo's downfall is due at least as much to this misjudgment made
while he is still free to act as to the physical cowardice which affects
him when he is a prisoner. 28 And as well as ruining Galileo it must
weaken Vanni's position: Vanni, like everyone else in the play, is let down
by Galileo.
(IV) THE SOCIAL WORLD OF THE PLAY
Of our four plays, Galileo relies most on historical fact. Brecht admitted
it might be treated as a conventional costume drama. Some parts of the
text, such as the servile letter to Florence and the formula of recanta-
tion, are taken from the historical sources. 29 But the historical element in,
this sense is only skin-deep. Brecht has no wish to show the past for
its own sake, or to demonstrate timeless patterns of human behaviour
in a strange setting. It is typical that Brecht uses only indirectly (1306;
87; 9; spoken by Andrea) Galileo's best-known statement, eppur si muove,
his muttered denial of the forced recantation; and symptomatic that
Galileo measures in cubic millimetres (1269; cf. 54, 'a fraction'; 4). The
game of chess, again, had been stabilised since the early sixteenth cen-
tury, and to have the secretaries playing the old game is a considerable
freedom (1284; 68; 7). Similarly Brecht takes liberties with Galileo's
biography and character. He did indeed write in the vernacular for a
wide public, as Brecht mentions {1310; 90; 9); but basically he so'd his
ideas in the dearest market, had only eclectic political ideas, remained
uncomprehended by the masses and put his hopes in the prince, was a
loyal son of the Church tormented by the heretical implications of his
discoveries, was unable to count on any such support from the middle
class as Brecht depicts in the figure of Vanni, and recanted- as was
generally understood at the time - when faced by overwhelming and
growing forces. 80 There is no evidence that he had particularly strong
feelings of living in a new age. He had no opportunity of showing
bravery in the plague in about 1616, since it did not reach Tuscany till
1632.81 The severity of his surveillance in house-arrest is much over-
stated by Brecht; for some time his works were freely sent to Paris
and elsewhere for publication, and the Holy Office did nothing even when
copies appeared in Rome. 82 Brecht does not try to make the major pre-
occupations of the historical Galileo major themes of his play.88 Yet the
alterations he makes to history are less grave than those sanctified by
the past masters of German historical drama- in Schiller, Joan of Arc
dies on the battlefield!
Occasionally Brecht's portrayal of the social situation touches reality:
Galileo's freedom of thought in Venice accompanied by poverty (1241£.;
28f.; 1), a historical reason for his move to Florence; the mercantile
spirit of Venice; the arguments used against Galileo by Aristotelians;
the pleasure-loving life of the high ecclesiastics. But basically, this
version of Galileo's age is meant as a thought-provoking foil to the
twentieth century. Two ways of provoking thought are used: an analogy
between the eras concerned, and an examination of how events of
Galileo's time are only now showing their full consequences.
Historically, the bourgeoisie in seventeenth-century Italy was stagnant
and conservative, the Church in the full flower of the Counter-Reforma-
tion, the nobility gaining in influence. But Brecht depicts a time of social
progress: Church and feudal aristocracy are in decline, desperately hold-
ing on to power, but having increasing difficulty in dealing with each
fresh manifestation of independence of spirit. Whilst still wielding great
power, the Church is bound to the nobility (1708; 88; 9) and thus, in
the long run, condemned to decline. Already it is not monolithic, as differ-
ences between Barberini, Bellarmin and the Inquisitor show. Barberini
hints to Galileo that he does not believe in his religion but sees God as
a social necessity, borrowing the Voltairean statement 'if there were no
God, one would have to invent one' {1290; 72f.; 7). The new science,
with the rise of the merchant class, is putting the Church in a false posi-
tion of having to compromise with heresy and allow the new astronomical
charts for navigation (1323; 102; 12), while the dual basis of the papacy
in belief and in politics is leading to a dangerous split, as the Pope allies
himself with the Protestants in the Thirty Years' War to weaken the
Catholic Emperor (1322; 101; 12). A similar gap was discovered in the
bourgeois society of his own day by Brecht. The courts are unwilling,
whatever the legal grounds, to reach judgments interfering with financiers'
return on capital. The rift between codified law and practice is the sign
of an ageing ideology {18, 193f.: Dreigroschenprozess).
In 1938 Brecht was interested in unstable authoritarian societies:
Rome in Caesar's time, where the effort to keep down the slaves in fact
enslaved everyone else, depriving political and financial leaders of in-
itiative (Aj., 11; 23.7.38); and of course Nazi Germany, whose ideology
is in his view secondary to the aim of exploiting the proletariat (Aj., 1.
10; 22.7.38). In the play he constructs a model of such a society: the
prelates are no more free than the peasants and their ideology is only
a means of social domination. The social forces are structured a priori.
His use of the Church to represent the feudal order, and the opposition to
it of science and the rising bourgeoisie, are in line with Engels' presen-
tation of the broad movement of history (Socialism, Utopian and Scien-
tific, Special Introduction to the English Edition of 1892); Engels, wisely,
does not refer to Italy to prove his point. For Brecht the attack on the
Church is a social matter: ' ... it would be highly dangerous, particu-
larly nowadays. to treat a matter like Galileo's fight for freedom of
research as a religious one; for thereby attention would be most un-
happily deflected from present-day reactionary authorities of a totally
unecclesiastical kind' (17, 1111£.; Mat. G., 15; G., 12). In scene 7 Bel-
larmin explains the Church's strategy: to place responsibility for the
horrors of life on a higher Being with a great plan which He is pursuing
through them {1287; 71). A similar divine plan is mentioned in The
Good Person. as being beyond Shen Teh's power to execute. There as
here, religion is to be seen as meaning conservative and oppressive
ideology. The attack on religions goes through all the great plays in
this form, based on Marx's Theses on Feuerbach, IV: the appearance of
an independent religious realm is a sign of something contradictory in
society. Against the external religious realm (heaven) Galileo sets up the
religious realm immanent to man and within the individual's control:
God is 'in us or nowhere' {1255; 41; 3). When he helps the Church in
scene 14, it is not out of belief: 'He merely tries to make his peace
with the powers-that-be' (17, 1132; Mat. G., 36). Therefore, though with
tongue in cheek, he defends charity against social justice, impenetrable
divine wisdom against lay curiosity {1332f.; 111; 14). One is at liberty
to decide for oneself what powers there are in our century that have
treated serious scientific views as treasonable heresies.
Church and nobility stick together. Cosimo (historically older than
Brecht implies; and by scene 11 Ferdinand II had succeeded, but Brecht
prefers continuity to historicity) passes Galileo on to Rome: first his
ideas to the Jesuits, later (though with some embarrassment) his per-
son to the Inquisition. Ludovico sees two proofs that he and Galileo
cannot inhabit the same social world: Galileo's godlessness, and his will-
ingness to undermine the landowners' position by writing for the masses.
Virginia is doubly involved: a faithful daughter of the Church (perhaps
partly because Galileo does not take her potential interest in the tele-
scope seriously) and betrothed to a member of the nobility. Not by
chance does she oversee his writing to Carpula in the final scene: she
wants him to help the powers-that-be because she believes in their
ideology.
In the first version, where Galileo's fight against the regime is auto-
matically a good thing for the masses, only a rudimentary idea of class
is required. The tiler is more symbolic of the workers than representative
of them; and the noble Ludovico has little more than an episodic function
(the student in scene 1 is one Doppone; Ludovico appears in scene 7).
In the second and third versions the social structure is given much more
attention; Ludovico becomes, largely at the instigation of Charles Laugh-
ton (Aj., 2, 767; 10.12.45), a feudalist in a socially motivated conflict
with Galileo, potential creator of unrest (1309f.; 89f.; 9). The nature of
the unrest is shown in scene 10, where the potential social effect of
ideas which destroy the heavenly hierarchy and man's place in it is
brought out. Many critics find this scene weak because it shows anarchy
and chaos as the consequence of ideas Brecht approve of. This is a super-
ficial reading: except for the farmer who 'kicks the landlord' (1314;
94- the attack with the scythe only appears in the English version; 10),
no one behaves violently in this state of chaos. This anarchy leads to no
brigandage or disorder; it is a state in which man no longer has to ex-
ploit or be cruel to man. Such a state is for Brecht connected with the
future pedecting of Communism, as is best seen in The Caucasian Chalk
Circle. Here it springs directly out of the seventeenth century, as if the
millenium could have been reached without the intervening bourgeois
era and its failings. Brecht short-circuits the history of the proletarian
idea. In history, according to Korsch, 'every revolutionary movement of
the bourgeoisie bred, as an undercurrent, independent stirrings of that
class which was ... the undeveloped predecessor of the modern proletar-
iat.'84 These stirrings here lead straight to Utopia. But the statement
of the potential of equality can only be tentative: in the seventeenth
century, and in Italy above all, the rise of the proletariat is impos-
sible. Only with the Communist Manifesto does the proletariat reach
the stage at which it could pursue its interests independently of the
bourgeoisie.
Vanni stands for something historically more definable, the rising
bourgeois class; he shows more dignity than Galileo, is not afraid to
talk loudly in the palace of Medici (1318: 'Ihre Stimme tragt'- 'Your
voice carries'; d. 97, 'Your opinion carries weight'). He wants freedom
in all progressive endeavours, especially money-making (ibid.). He has
more all-round intelligence than any other character, assesses the power-
structure much better than the naive Galileo and sees the connections
of belief, science, technology, individualism and capitalism. Sagredo, of
the same class, is more aware of the dangers of moving too fast- he
finds Galileo's abolition of heaven 'appalling' (1250; 37; 3).
Federzoni represents- from the second version of the play on- the
urban artisan, standing behind science and progress but sent back to the
workshop by Galileo's recantation (1335; 113; 14). Andrea, son of a
servant, starts out as a lowly helper, tidying up at the beginning of
scene 4, before his symbolic fight with Cosimo during which the Ptole-
maic model of the universe is broken: the struggle of Ptolemy and
Copernicus is really the struggle of the Grand Duke and the servant. But
he becomes a teacher; and, as a scientist and the first 'inventive dwarf,
producing knowledge for a world still dominated by its Grand Dukes, he
is implicitly seen as representing the emergent bourgeois' meek accept-
ance of the continuing power of feudalism throughout the bourgeois era
(a historical phenomenon particularly apparent in Germany). As a young
scientist, he is given, instead of an example of the responsible use of the
power bestowed by knowledge, Galileo's recantation to mull over. His
incorrect interpretation of its motives does not equip him to face the
problems which beset the scientist in the new age: for he thinks Galileo
can do no wrong and Galileo recanted on purpose so as to be able to
work on. So he copies Galileo's irresponsibility.
The little monk Fulganzio speaks for the peasantry; but as a priest
he also represents power; as an astronomer, the new strivings. Per-
suaded by Galileo in scene 8 to espouse social commitment, he resolutely
abandons the ecclesiastical order- but has to creep back to it when let
down by Galileo's recantation (1335; 113; 14).
(v) THE STRUCTURE AND ARTISTRY OF THE PLAY
The play follows as its central subject Galileo's work on the Copernican
universe. Each scene adds further to our picture of the scientist and
gives us material evidence to use in coming to a judgment at the end,
when he and Andrea offer explanations of his conduct. Brecht first
occupied himself with the subject in connection with a plan to dramatise
great trials of world history.M The theme of the social value of a heroic
act, performed or left unperformed, may come from his thought on Joan
Qf Arc- herseH the victim of a great triai.3 6 Just as Shakespeare in his
historical plays imposes on his potentially formless and discursive
material a central subject and theme, and ties in the inevitable episodic
elements, so Brecht discerns patterns in Galileo's life which lend them-
selves to dramatic formation. In the abstract, the procedure displeased
Brecht: 'in formal matters i do not defend the play particularly hard'
(Aj., 2, 747: 30.7.45). He contrasts the play with others, here lumped
together as parables: 'in them ideas are given body, here a material
gives birth to certain ideas' (ibid.). In fact a historical subject is in-
tractable material for demonstrative, model-based theatre. Brecht is
suspicious of its atmosphere, its cosiness.
The repetition structure is the basis of the play. In the second half
(scenes 9-14) the events of the first half (scenes 1-7) are replayed after
an eight-year interval and with a different twist. In scene 1 Galileo
demonstrates the movement of the earth round the sun, in scene 9 the
floating of a needle. In scene 7 his work is condemned, in scene 14 he
himself ruined. 37 Such a structure is a good epic vehicle to show human
nature. Already in the Threepenny Opera Macheath was (almost) ruined,
not by going to a brothel. but by going once too often to the same one.
Here the hero, though his work is once placed on the Index, disregards
the warning and involves himself in a more serious situation. Between
the parallel actions Brecht places scene 8, the conversation with the little
monk, which faces in two directions: it sums up the positive and
socially-orientated aspects of science, Galileo arguing in favour of
technical progress and against the superstitions which keep the peasants
of the Campagna subordinated to the Church and the lords; and it pre-
figures the negative aspects of science, the monk throwing himself on
Galileo's papers heedless of the consequences, just as Galileo is now
to go on with his work regardless. The monk, caught between commit-
ment to the peasant class he springs from and his support of the Church,
which acts to oppress that class, reflects Galileo's dilemma between the
demands of progress and the constraints of the given political situation.
Scene 8, set in Rome and yet in a sense in Florence, provides the ideo-
logical superstructure of the play in the clash of these complex attitudes.
But the action also has another structure in the form of a single arc
of action following Galileo's occupation with Copernican theory from
the 'invention' of the telescope, enabling Copernicus' views to be proved,
through to the completion of the 'Discorsi'. 38 This structure is under-
lined by the parallels between scenes 1 and 14 (which is the last scene,
scenes 5 and 15 never being performed): morning and evening, the bed
made up after the night and the bed prepared ready for night (by
Virginia during the last few sentences, a piece of business arranged by
Brecht at one of his last rehearsals 89), the speech welcoming the new age
and that showing how the new age has been and will be a disappoint-
ment. Within this there are correspondences of various scenes: the two
carnivals (scenes 7 and 10) are a study in contrast, and the pure dia-
logue of scene 8 is balanced by the demonstrations and experimentation
of the next scene. 40
The element of dialectics in the play means, at its simplest structural
level, the building of contentual contrasts: of Venice, where Galileo is
free but short of time and money, with Florence, where he has plently
of both but is subject to the Inquisition; between Jesuits and Inquisi-
tion in their attitude to Galileo's findings; between the people's recog-
nition of Galileo and his being cut by the Grand Duke; between Galileo's
courage in the plague and his cowardice faced with torture. Or the re-
appearance of things in different contexts gives a shock of recognition:
Galileo needs instruments for his work of enlightenment, the Church
has instruments of torture. 41
Variation of elements within the play is much stressed. Each gestic
section of scene 1 - dialogue with Andrea, monologue on the new age,
interview with Ludovico, and so on- shows Galileo in a different light:
as the quasi-paternal teacher, the visionary, the academic in need of
extra cash. Brecht is more concerned to keep the dialogue graceful and
memorable than to construct realistic scenes. Thus in scene 2 it is
improbable that Galileo explains his discoveries to Sagredo rather than
giving his attention to his employers, the Venetian magistrates. But this
arrangement shows up some of the inherent contradictions in him and
the society of his age. The great man cheats - the society employing him
practically forces him to, to live decently. He is careless of his employ-
ers; he does not realise they are better employers than the one he is
about to join, the proponent of a social order which his discoveries will
undermine. In an elegant ceremony, all is hypocrisy. Galileo talks of
science and means money. The senators are concerned with food and the
threat of peeping Toms; but in fact love of food is a disturbing character-
istic of Galileo himself, 42 and in the next scene the connection of genius
and sensuality is the theme: both the telescope and the move to Flor-
ence mean to him discoveries, money, the fleshpots. In scene 4 the con-
sequences become clear: he gets what he wants, but not recognition.
In scene 5 his bravery puts Signora Sarti and Andrea in danger - and so
on through a series of demonstrations of attitudes and their conse-
quences. In the recantation scene, Brecht decides to show the attitudes
of Virginia and the pupils, rather than Galileo's own torments- a pro-
cedure which scarcely makes the spectator less involved, but does give
him a wider view of what is going on.
The invariable omission of scenes 5 and 15 in performance alters the
impact of the play. Without the demonstration of Galileo's bravery in the
plague, the disappointment caused by his cowardice before the Inquisi-
tion is less keen: his actions seem more predictably unheroic. And
without the demonstration of how to smuggle manuscripts across fron-
tiers, one is less likely to indulge in believing that Galileo's work has
positive value after all. In general, the performed text is poorer in dia-
lectical contradictions than the printed one. 43
Motifs hold the levels of the play together. The salient example is
the motif of milk (and cheese). Galileo, in reply to Andrea's message that
the milkman must be paid, takes the opportunity for a lesson in termin-
ology: if he doesn't get his money, the milkman will describe a circle
round the house (1231; 19; 1). Insistence on scientific terms for every-
day phenomena underlines the social theme: science as the means of
mastering the problems of everyday life. That it does not do so directly
is mentioned in scene 4: Jupiter's moons don't cheapen milk, but their
discovery does imply that the man in the street can see much if he
opens his eyes (1270; 54). And at the end, the application of doubt to
astronomical matters is contrasted with the blind belief which keeps
the Roman housewife short of milk (1340; 117f.; 14). The motif of the
unpaid milkman is the occasion for contrasting Galileo, who would rather
buy books (1235; 22; 1), with Signora Sarti, whose first question about
the new age is whether the milkman can be paid (1236; 23; 1): to her
the good opinion of her fellow-citizens is important, and the milkman
stands for them in scene 4 (1262; 47). In scene 15 Andrea puts milk out-
side the door of an old woman shunned by the pious (1343f.; 120f.),
just as in scene 5 Galileo was shunned when an old woman left some
milk at his door (1276, 1278; 60f.). Generosity with milk is also men-
tioned in connection with the she-wolf suckling the founders of Rome -
but today, in the official view, children must pay Rome for their milk
(1286; 69; 7). Myth and business are both part of the general world-
order upheld by Church and feudalists: by Fulganzio's mention of his
parents eating a cheese dish (1294; 76; 8) and by Ludovico's unjustified
complaint that Galileo doesn't appreciate his cheese (1309; 90; 9). The
warder-monk of scene 14 too appreciates cheese, which lures him away
(1335; 113) from spying on Galileo and Andrea. Finally, Galileo turns
the telescope on the Milky Way (1248; 34; 2, and 1253; 39; 3). So the
milk motif contains the whole theme of the play- science and social
justice- and hints of Brecht's hopes for the future of mankind.
(VI) LANGUAGE
In this play language is first and foremost a means of characterisation.

Intellectuals tend to express themselves in metaphors which may be very
forced, like the Curator in scene 1: 'the whips of bondage under which
learning groans in certain places - whips which the authorities have cut
from their old leather folios' (1243; 29). The cliche of the whip comes
first, but when it is reinforced by the reference to old folios (Aristotle),
the result does not convince. More enjoyable, though more hostile to
Galileo, are the neat sentences with which the philosopher and the
mathematician needle Galileo in scene 4:
GALILEO: Are you accusing me of fraud?

THE PHILOSOPHER: But how could we? In the presence of his High-
ness!
THE MATHEMATICIAN: Your instrument- whether one calls it your
child or your pupil [Zogling] - is certainly most cleverly made, no
doubt about that!
THE PHILOSOPHER: And we are entirely convinced, Signor Galilei, that
neither you nor anyone else would dare to bestow the illustrious name
of our ruling house on stars whose existence was not beyond all pos-
sible doubt. (1267£.; 53)
Having passed off the telescope in Venice as his own child, which it was
not (perhaps 'stepchild' would come closer to the spirit of Zogling),
Galileo may well be deceiving them now. A scandal involving the Medicis
threatens. The ruling house serves as a particularly elegant reason for not
putting the accusation in so many words; but also the references to it and
to Cosima are put in the hieratic terms which remind one that in defend-
ing the highly complex Ptolemaic universe they are also upholding (with-
out hypocrisy) a highly schematised social order. For them Galileo is
a dubious interloper. 44 Elsewhere Brecht satirises the existing order, most
effectively in the figure of the aged Cardinal, who makes a speech full of
first-person pronouns on Man's place in the universe (1282; 65; 6) before
symbolically collapsing. In the same scene Galileo is attacked with cheap
puns: 'Schwindel im Collegium Romanum' (1279; cf. 63, 'Giddiness')
is either dizziness caused by the earth's spinning or a swindle perpe-
trated by Galileo.
A subtler attack on the language of the established order- so subtle
that it is rarely noticed- is contained in the celebrated argument in
biblical quotations (1286; 69; 7) between Barberini and Galileo. Galileo's
citations are correct, whereas Barberini's are largely made up. Galileo's
'He that withholdeth corn, the people shall curse him' is Proverbs 11,
26; but Barberini is tendentious in his alteration of Proverbs 12, 23 (a
fact clearer in the original where Luther has 'Ein verstandiger Mann
tragt nicht Klugheit zur Schau', making it clear that modesty, not secre-
tiveness, is the virtue aimed at; whereas the New English Bible agrees
with Barberini). So Galileo is better able to quote scripture to his pur-
pose than the Cardinal. 40
The language of Gaiileo's opponents is generally shown up as in some
way false. He. on the other hand, speaks in terms borrowed from reality,
some of them of the force of proverbs or pithy sayings: 'I know they
call a donkey a horse when they want to sell, and a horse a donkey when
they want to buy' (1256; 42; 3). But all the time he builds them into
rhetorical forms. Around the sentence just quoted are two statements
which define it as a description of 'cunning'. The rest of the speech is given
to 'reason', and consists of three everyday examples of the rational be-
haviour, followed by a two-pronged conclusion: 'they are my hope-
they all listen to reason' (ibid.), a statement of belief about the power
of reason, three statements about the irresistibility of logic for the human
mind- of which the middle one is reinforced by Galileo's typical gesture
of dropping a stone to prove the point: nobody would say it fell upl -
and three general statements of which two exploit a paradox, the 'temp-
tation' (ibid). of a proof (as often in Brecht there is the implication that
to embrace what is good in the long run brings short-term disad-
vantages); whilst the third turns the paradox round and describes thinking
as a pleasure (opening up the whole theme of Galileo's genius and sensu-
ality and their disadvantages). The concrete examples take up about half
the speech, the abstract lessons about half. The examples themselves,
however, are given with careful pedantic or poetic touches. The old
woman gives her mule hay with a 'horny' hand; the sailor gedenkt of the
calms, the child covers his head wenn ihm bewiesen wurde (both poetic
or pretentious turns of phrase, lost in the English) that it may rain.
They are not examples naively taken from the fulness of experience;
they are worked-over, finished products. Similarly his great monologue
in scene 14 is an exercise in chiasmus, the juxtaposition of opposites in
mirror-image form. 46 If such things impress, they also detract from
Gaiileo's social claims. His mentions of artisans and common people are
often more beautiful than true; and this is to be connected with his
failure to recognise his (class) interests at decisive moments: he does
not have genuine feelings of affinity with the lower orders.
There is perhaps empty pedantry in his use of words such as diesbe-
zuglich (1339; 117, 'In this respect'; 14). But some less obtrustive turns
of phrase have philosophical weight, stamping his thought as realistic
in contrast to established dogmas. Thus the demonstrative, introductory
da, followed by forms of the verb sein, echoes Dasein, existence seen
ontologically, and is used (1253f., scene 3) successively to point to reali-
ties which are observable (Jupiter and its moons), and to philosophical
figments which are not (the crystal spheres of Ptolemy). The phrase is
odd: 'Da ist keine Stiitze im Himmel .. .' The English (39f.) 'There is .. .'
cannot give such effects.
Brecht originally used much material from Gaiileo's Discorsi and
steeped himself in Galileo's tone. The reading after scene 13 (1330; 108)
gives an idea of this basis: rhetorical, persuasive grouping of concrete
examples leading to a succinct conclusion. But the speeches of Galileo
in the play are much more Brecht, and perhaps also more Laughton, than
Galileo- Laughton's knowledge of the Bible and Shakespeare having been
an important element in the compilation of the second version. When
Galileo is quoted, it is usually in a compressed form and with stress
on the theatrical elements Brecht needs. Andrea reads from the Dis-
corsi: 'My project is to establish an entirely new science dealing with a
very old subject-Motion' (1337; 115; 14). Here Brecht has added the
subjective, energetic start and the repetition of sehr (the 'entirely ...
very' of the English), but about halved the length of the originalY Where-
as the historical Galileo, on the other hand, was prone to emotional out-
bursts in private life. Brecht keeps his language cool. expressing emotion
rather by taciturnity, as when he replies to Signora Sarti's long warning
against working on sunspots in three words whose disregard of all her
arguments implies a deadly insult (1308; 89; 9). Only once, just before
his self-analysis. does he give way: 'Welcome to the gutter .. .' (1339;
117f.; 14). ironically identifying himself with the Jewish fishmonger who
had so little self-respect that in his endeavour to persuade people his
fish was not high he attributed the stench surrounding him to himself.
The Inquisitor is also a rhetorician; his speech in its whole structure,
employment of real and invented quotations. careful construction of
climaxes and use of vulgarity is fitted to the hearer, the Pope- but also
to the audience. When he asks rhetorical questions, we have already heard
the answer from Galileo. Are we to found society on doubt instead of
faith, is it not indifferent how heavenly bodies move, what wonders will
come about through machinery? We know! In each case, put in a different
social perspective, the subject looks different; the spectator is invited to
compare the Inquisitor's arguments with Galileo's. When the Inquisitor
says everyone, even the stable-boys, 'chatters about the phases of Venus'
because of Galileo's bad example (1323; 101; 12), he has said nothing
vulgar: but we remember that Galileo mentions the phases of Venus
in connection with his Priapic poem (1297; 78; 8) and with Virginia's
behind (1307; 87, 'her curves', is euphemistic; 9)- so the Inquisitor is
gently mocked. Also earthy is Federzoni, who turns the lady-in·waiting's
silly remark into a vulgar joke: 'all sorts of things on the Bull' {1268;
53; 4), and cuts through the courtesies of discussion about divine Aris-
totle: 'But the man had no telescope!' (1269; 54; in many editions
erroneously attributed to Galileo). Signora Sarti, finally, is down-to-earth
in her evocation of the churchmen as horse-doctors trying to bring
Galileo round: 'Die hochsten Kardinale haben in dich hineingeredet wie
in ein krankes Ross' (1308; the English. 88f., cannot catch the tone; 9).
(vn) THE PLAY ON THE STAGE
Through Galileo the play has what may be called the gestus of scientific
demonstration. As the play sets out to demonstrate certain truths, so does
he. He drops a stone (1281; 64; 6, etc.) to show that no one can stand
the nonsense of saying it fell up; he makes experiments on stage which
spread the ambiguous aura of wonderment and satisfaction because they
are deceptively simple (1304; 85; 9). Simplicity does not mean ease of
execution. Brecht demands that the actor show particular skill in such
things as floating a needle on water; this is an early work-play. In the
gracefulness of the demonstrations, mind shows its ma.stery over matter
(only to lose it with Galileo's fear of torture). Similar elegance is shown
by the progression of dominant colours in the costumes for various
scenes, arranged for the 1947 production with Laughton- Brecht's first
chance to see in practice some of the ideas on theatre he had worked out
in the previous decade. Joseph Losey's film sticks closely to this scheme
and its reflection of the changing moods of the play: morning tones of
white, yellow and grey for scene 1, Ludovico's deep aristocratic blue,
dark green for the Venetians in scene 2, increasing elegance of silver and
pearl grey in scene 4, scene 6 as a notturno in brown and black, the
two carnivals as high-points of colour and spectacle, and a descent into
dull greys at the end. 48 The paintings of Bruegel the Elder did good
service in suggesting costumes; Brecht was also glad to find visual
evidence that trousers were known in the seventeenth century, so that he
could avoid 'what our age finds dressed-up' (17, 1122; Mat. G., 44).
Settings used by Brecht are cool and matter-of-fact, non-representa-
tional (Brecht was suspicious of anything that might make the atmos-
phere domestic) and dominated by the model of the Galilean universe
(flown) and other pictorial evidence with a Renaissance and technical
flavour. A half-curtain is drawn across the stage between scenes. Laugh-
ton as Galileo, drawn from the body of the stage at the end of scene 4
by the need to follow the courtiers out, stood in front of this curtain,
pondering the appeal to Rome just announced to him, waiting for scene
6 and establishing the connection between the scenes (scene 5 was of
course omitted), playing with the stones he uses to demonstrate the
charms of visual proof (Mat. G., 58). The play depends much on tableaux.
In scene 9, for instance, the dangerous change in the direction of Galileo's
research is made obvious when a carefully arranged grouping (1305; 86,
'All settle round the table', lacks the formality) is destroyed, and revealed
as having been ironic all along, by the setting up of the apparatus for
research on sunspots (1307f.; 87f.), whilst at the same time the social
implications become clear in the quarrel with Ludovico: and at the
moment the mirror is finally adjusted and the image of the sun flares on
to the stage, Virginia arrives in the wedding-dress she will never use:
the first victim of Galileo's thirst for truth at all costs (1311; 9lf.). In
scene 12, the robing of the Pope which proceeds through the scene turns
him not only visually but psychologically from the mathematician Bar-
berini into the Pope who must act to defend his Church; but his unhappi-
ness is betrayed by his helpless eyes. Half the point of this scene is
expressed visually and would be lost in a radio performance, a good
example of Brecht's technical concentratedness. 49 For Galileo's self-
analysis in scene 14 Brecht had Virginia and Andrea on either side,
Galileo in the middle: between goose-liver and the Discorsi, sensuality
and science. 50
Brecht favoured the translation of all feelings into actions as a step
towards interpreting psychology in social terms. There are for instance
manifold variations of the act of bowing. reaching in scene 4 from the
ceremonial bow of Andrea and Cosimo at the outset (1263; 47), a prelude
to their fight, through the formal bows with which Cosimo favours his
subjects and dependants (1265; 50), to desperate manifestations of ser-
vility from Galileo as Cosimo leaves. In Berlin, Ekkehard Schall, re-
hearsing the role of Andrea in scene 14, introduced an imitation of
Galileo's bow at the point where he talks about it (1338; 116), thus
making its ridiculousness belatedly even more obvious. 51
Speeches too are to be interpreted in social contexts. When Galileo
demonstrates the satellites of Jupiter to Cosimo and his experts, he is
talking to people who are intelligent, but uninterested if not hostile. He
runs quickly through his introduction (1265; 50): a formal speech, not an
attempt to put facts across. The demonstration of the earth's move-
ment for Andrea in scene 1 too can be played offhand, as an interrup-
tion- albeit a pleasurable one- of Galileo's real work (Mat. G., 51).
Similarly at the beginning of scene 3 Galileo turns away from the tele-
scope and relaxes (G., cover photo), trusting Sagredo to observe and
draw his own conclusions. Laughton kept tense observation of the skies
for when Priuli arrived - so as not to have to look the victim of his
deception in the face (Mat. G., 55). In scene 7 Barberini warns the clerks
not to take down the 'scientific conversation between friends' (1287;
71). But they do carefully record what Galileo was saying at that point:
'the bit where he says that he believes in reason' (1290; 73). Have they
disobeyed the Cardinal in the interests of the Inquisition, or were his
words intended as an indirect warning to Galileo to be more circumspect
where there are spies about?
Eisler's music takes an independent role, attempting to show under-
lying strengths and weaknesses- the self-confidence of the revolutionary
world in scene 10, for instance- rather than to depict individual occas-
ions. The introductory verses to scenes are lightly scored (three boys'
voices, flute, clarinet, harpsichord) but written in a kind of brutalised
recitative.
Joseph Losey, the director of the American premiere, has also filmed
the play. This mid-Atlantic product has two main weaknesses: astron-
omical material is not put visually (why should we see Sagredo looking
through a telescope and not see what he sees?), and Topol's comic
genius in the title role does not assert itself against rather portentous
and heavy directing. Brecht once intended to film the subject on location
in Italy32 - a promising idea, which could be especially interesting if no
attempt were made to restore the locations to their seventeenth-
century condition.
5 Mother Courage and her Children
The play was written from September to November 1939 in Sweden, the
name and some atmosphere coming from Grimmelshausen's seventeenth-
century novel Die Landstortzerin Courasche, the figure of an indomitable
camp-follower suggested by the poem Lotta Sviird by the Swedish author
Johan Ludvig Runeberg. 1 The first performance was in Zurich on 19 April
1941 with Therese Giehse as Mother Courage and music by Paul Burk-
hard. The music now used was written by Paul Dessau, mainly in 1946.
On 11 January Brecht and Helene Weigel introduced the play to Berlin,
in the Deutsches Theater; on 8 October 1950 Brecht produced it in
Munich, again with Therese Giehse. In 1960 a film was made of the (by
then revised) Berlin production. At the end of his life Brecht wrote a film
script under the same title, which is however for all practical purposes
a different work.
(1) THE PLOT
Scene 1: The businesswoman Anna Fierling, known by the name of

Courage, joins with the Swedish army. Road outside a town in Dalarne.
(a) 'Recruiters searching the country for cannon-fodder.' 2 A recruiting
officer and a sergeant discuss how there is no organisation in life except
in war.
(b) 'Courage presents to a sergeant her diverse family, products of vari-
ous theatres of war': Mother Courage rolls on on a wagon drawn by
her two sons Eilif and Swiss Cheese; her dumb daughter Kattrin sits on
it, and it is full of sutler's wares to sell to the soldiers. The sergeant
demands papers and names, but is merely confused by the comic account
which Courage gives of her children after singing the 'Courage Song'
which introduces her and her trade.
(c) The sergeant and recruiting officer want to enlist the boys, but she
is having none of it, drawing her knife on the sergeant. He objects
that if she wants to make a living from the war she must give some-
thing.
(d) She counters by saying that he is a potential corpse, tears a sheet
of paper across to show the fate of those who get too involved in war,
and has him draw lots to show him that he is doomed. The boys, how-
ever, still want to join up.
(e) To frighten them away from the war she puts more pieces of paper
in the helmet from which the sergeant has drawn his fate; all three of
her children draw black crosses, which she says means they will die if
they involve themselves in war.
(f) 'Because of a little deal she yet loses her brave son': to move things
their way the recruiters decide to involve Courage in a business deal.
The sergeant takes a belt behind the wagon to examine, on the pretext
that there is less wind there. Meanwhile the recruiting officer promises
Eilif advance pay and takes him away to join up. Kattrin tries to raise the
alarm, but her mother is not listening. The sergeant pays for the belt;
she returns to find Eilif gone.
(g) 'Now the sergeant has his turn to make a prophecy to Courage:
those who want to live off war must give it something.'
Scene 2: Mother Courage meets her brave son again before Wallhof
Castle. Swedish commander's tent.
(a) 'Mother Courage profiteers with provisions in the Swedish camp',
to the background of cannonfire and with her own humorous sales
talk.
(b) 'In the course of tough bargaining about a capon she makes the
acquaintance of an army cook who is to play a part in her life.' He
prefers to cook stinking beef rather than pay her price for the bird she is
trying to sell.
(c) 'The Swedish commander brings a young soldier into his tent and
honours him for his bravery': with a chaplain, they enter the other part
of the tent and start drinking.
(d) When the young soldier speaks Courage recognises his voice- Eilif.
(e) 'In view of the honouring of Eilif she is able to sell her capon more
dearly': the commander demands food for his party; she trebles the price
of the capon and plucks it for the cook.
(f) Eilif describes to the commander how he carried off a number of
oxen (which will not reach the camp for a day or two). Meanwhile
Mother Courage shows that a stupid general who leads his soldiers into a
bad situation (such as they are in at the moment) demands the virtue
of bravery; well-regulated states demand no virtues from their subjects.
(g) Eilif entertains the commander with the 'Song of the Fishwife and
the Soldier', performing a sword dance to it. At the third verse, Courage
joins in from the kitchen.
(h) Eilif goes in to the kitchen and embraces her. After initial greetings
she boxes his ear for having been too brave and not taken care of him-
self.
Mother Courage and her Children 87
Scene 3: Mother Courage transfers from the Lutheran to the Catholic
camp and loses her honest son Swiss Cheese. Camp with Courage's
wagon.
(a) 'Black market in munitions': Courage buys bullets from an ordnance
officer, to resell to another who has no ammunition left. The officer goes
off accompanied by Swiss Cheese, who has been made regimental pay-
master because he is so honest.
(b) Yvette, the camp prostitute, fallen on hard times because everyone
thinks she is infected, drinks to console herself and sings the 'Fraternisa-
ation Song' describing how she ran away from home following a soldier
for love. But she says she never found him- that was ten years ago,
and now she despairs of going on as a whore: she leaves her hat behind.
Courage warns Kattrin against love with soldiers.
(c) The chaplain and the cook come, and engage in polite political con-
versation and flirtation with Courage at one side of the cart over drinks.
Meanwhile Kattrin struts about, trying Yvette's hat and sexy walk.
(d) The Catholics attack; the cook rushes off through the fire to get
back to the commander, but the chaplain has not the courage, gets
Mother Courage to give him a cloak and stays where he is. A soldier tries
to move a cannon; Courage gets Yvette's things off Kattrin. Yvette re-
turns in delighted anticipation of being occupied by an army that does
not know she is ill. She recovers her hat, but Kattrin hides her boots.
Swiss Cheese runs in with the regimental cashbox, which he refuses to
throw away because it is a trust. Mother Courage rubs ashes on Kattrin's
face to make her unattractive; and runs down the Swedish flag.
(e) 'First lunch in the Catholic camp': three days later. The family eats
anxiously, hoping their rather unconvincing pretence of Catholicism will
hold out and enable them to live well off the enemy as off the friend
previously. There are spies everywhere who would love to discover enemy
aliens. Courage goes with the chaplain, who has a good nose for meat,
to get supplies- in getting ready she finds Yvette's shoes hidden and
berates Kattrin.
(f) Kattrin makes signs, and Swiss Cheese talks, about autumn; then he
lays plans to get back to the regiment with the cashbox. He fails to
understand Kattrin's warning about a spy and goes off with the box.
Kattrin is desperate. Her mother and the chaplain return and gather
from her signs that Swiss Cheese has probably been caught. Indeed he is
arrested and brought on and confronted with the party; but they all
pretend not to know each other. and Swiss Cheese denies having been
running around with a bulge under his shirt. He is taken off.
(g) 'Mother Courage pawns her wagon to a camp whore to raise money
to free Swiss Cheese': the chaplain sings a song about the Passion to
Kattrin. Courage arrives: Swiss Cheese will be killed unless she can
raise some money for the sergeant; perhaps Yvette, who has picked up
a colonel, will buy the wagon. When the chaplain objects that she would
have nothing to live off, Courage tells Yvette, who arrives with her
ancient beau, that she wants to pawn, not to sell outright. After some
argument Yvette agrees and starts taking an inventory. Mother Courage
thinks if she frees Swiss Cheese he will recover the regimental cash and
she will claim the expenses from it to redeem the wagon.
(h) But Yvette, after going to negotiate with the soldiery, says he has
thrown the cashbox into the river. Faced with loss of the wagon Mother
Courage is forced to lower her offer for Swish Cheese in order to retain
working capital for a fresh start. Yvette goes off with the offer.
(i) The others polish knives and glasses. Yvette returns: the soldiers
insist on the full original amount. But it is too late: drums roll, Swiss
Cheese is condemned. Yvette returns to report his execution and that
the body will be brought for a final test of whether Courage did not
know him after all.
(i) 'Dumb Kattrin comes to her mother's side to await dead Swiss
Cheese.'
(k) 'In order not to betray herself Courage denies her dead son.'
Scene 4: The Song of the Great Capitulation.

(a) 'Mother Courage sits outside the lieutenant's tent to complain about
damage to her wagon. A scrivener advises her in vain to pretend it didn't
happen.'
(b) 'A young soldier comes to complain likewise. She dissuades him': the
soldier has been deprived of a reward for saving the colonel's horse, he
wants the lieutenant's blood, and he is hungry. Mother Courage points
out that he and his comrades trampled down the crops, hence the famine
now; and the more he complains, the longer he will be put in the stocks.
The scriviner orders the soldier to sit- and promptly he sits.
(c) Mother Courage sings the 'Song of the Great Capitulation': one
learns to keep in step sooner or later.
(d) The soldier leaves without making his complaint; Mother Courage
too changes her mind about complaining.
Scene 5: Mother Courage loses four officers' shirts, and dumb Kattrin
finds a baby.
(a) 'After a battle': the wagon is in a ruined village, soldiers stand
around.
(b) 'Courage refuses the chaplain her officers' shirts which he wants to
bandage wounded peasants with': she says she cannot afford to give
anything.
(c) 'Dumb Kattrin threatens her mother', and the chaplain bodily sets
Courage aside to get at the stock he needs.
(d) 'Kattrin saves a baby at the risk of her life' from the ruins, and is
happy playing with it whilst the rest go about their everyday activities,
arguing and stealing.
Scene 6: Beginning of prosperity, but dumb Kattrin is mutilated.

(a) 'Mother Courage, now a prosperous woman, takes stock' with Kattrin,
the chaplain plays a game of draughts with a clerk, soldiers come for
drinks, and they discuss the death of the general Tilly.
(b) In her appreciation of Tilly, Courage shows how the plans of the
great are always spoilt by those with less ambition.
(c) 'Conversations on the length of the war. The chaplain proves that
the war will last a long time.'
(d) Kattrin is shocked at this, as her mother promised her a husband
once there was peace. Courage, however, tells her peace will be nicer
when they have made a little more money, and sends her to bring some
goods from the town.
(e) Left alone with Mother Courage the chaplain flatters her and chops
wood for her, whilst complaining that his talents are wasted here and
offering her a closer relationship. She insists on keeping things on a
business level.
(f) Kattrin returns in a fearful state, with a wound that will leave a
permanent scar, but with the goods intact. Her mother fusses over her
and gives her Yvette's red boots to comfort her; but when Kattrin goes
into the wagon she leaves them outside.
(g) 'Mother Courage curses war', whilst counting the things Kattrin
has brought. Kattrin need not hope for a husband in peacetime now.
Scene 7: Mother Courage at the height of her business career.

(a) A prosperous Courage, pulling the wagon with the chaplain and
Kattrin, defends war as a good source of income.
Scene 8: A peace threatens to ruin Mother Courage's business. Her

brave son does one heroic deed too many and comes to a bad end.
(a) 'Courage and the chaplain hear a rumour that peace has broken out.'
(b) The Swedish commander's cook turns up, and says Eilif will be com-
ing too. He immediately- though penniless- starts trying to take over
the chaplain's place.
(c) 'The fight for the place at the trough.' The chaplain reacts too
heatedly, argues against all the cook says and becomes desperate when
Courage shows more signs of taking the cook's advice.
(d) Yvette, now the wife of a Colonel Starhemberg, comes and recognises
in the cook the man who was responsible for her original trouble; she
leaves Mother Courage in no doubt of it. She goes off to market with
Courage, leaving the chaplain gloating over the sudden reversal of fortune.
(e) Soldiers bring Eilif. He has just robbed a peasant with violence- the
sort of thing for which he was rewarded in wartime- and been con-
demned to death; and as his mother is away. he cannot even see her one
last time. The chaplain goes with him on his last journey; the cook stands
around apprehensively and tries to beg some food for Kattrin, who is
lying in the wagon skulking.
(/) Mother Courage returns, still with the goods. War has restarted. The
cook tells her Eilif and the chaplain are in the town; and as the chaplain
is not there, she asks the cook to stay as her helper. He and Kattrin are
harnessed to the wagon to follow the Swedish army again.
Scene 9: The war takes an unfortunate course. For the sake of her
daughter Courage refuses a home.
(a} The cook and Mother Courage are now reduced to begging at a
half-ruined parsonage. The cook has had a letter saying he has inherited
an inn in Utrecht, which both find preferable to following a war which
has devastated the country. Mother Courage puts the proposition to
Kattrin.
(b) But it is a misunderstanding: the cook has no intention of taking on
a dumb, scarred girl in his inn. Courage protests she cannot be left alone.
(c) The cook sings the 'Song of the Vexations of Great Men' in the hope
of earning a bowl of soup: it shows how difficult it is to be virtuous and
survive.
(d) While Courage still argues as they go to get the soup at the door,
Kattrin emerges from the wagon with a bundle, leaves a skirt of her
mother's and a pair of trousers in suggestive proximity, and makes to
steal away.
(e) 'Mother Courage stops Kattrin's flight and goes on alone with her.'
(/) 'The cook goes to Utrecht.'
Scene 10: Still on the road.

(a} 'From a farmhouse mother and daughter hear the Song of the Home'.
Scene 11: Dumb Kattrin saves the city of Halle.

(a} The wagon is parked near a farmhouse. Soldiers come by night, wake
the peasants and force one to show them the path to Halle which they
are to take by surprise. Mother Courage is in Halle.
(b) The old peasants remaining conclude they can do nothing but pray;
they get Kattrin to pray too for the safety of the town.
(c) But when she hears that they have grandchildren in the town she is
troubled; she gets a drum. climbs up to a shed roof and starts drumming
to give the alarm to the town.
(d) The peasants want her to stop because the soldiers will kill them all.
But she pulls her ladder up on to the roof and goes on drumming. Soldiers
come and try to make her stop by offering to spare her mother when
the town is taken and by threatening her with breaking up the wagon.
They also try to make natural noises to drown her drumming, but noth-
ing is any use.
(e) They shoot her dead. But the alarm has been raised in the town.
Scene 12: Courage goes on her way.

(a) 'Peasants have to convince Courage that Kattrin is dead.'
(b) 'Kattrin's lullaby' sung by Mother Courage.
(c) 'Mother Courage pays for Kattrin's burial and receives the condol-
ences of the peasants.'
(d) 'Mother Courage harnesses herself alone to her empty wagon. Still
hoping to get back in the way of trade she follows the ragged soldiery.'
(II) THE CHRONICLE
In many ways the structure of this play is comparable with that of

Galileo. Both have a dearth of what are usually thought of as epic
elements in the text. The distortion of dramatic tempo by the fore-
shortening of expositions and the dwelling on lyrical elements is absent.
The initial exposition is a highly traditional one, using the device of a
meeting between Mother Courage and the sentries to give a natural
description of what we need to know of her history so far. 3 Despite
the apparently episodic and discursive structure, there is a centre of
emphasis comparable to that in Galileo (his work on the Copernican
system): the play opens with the first separation of the heroine from one
of her children, and ends when they are all dead.• The action is contem-
poraneous with that of Galileo, but the atmosphere different. From a
prosperous, peaceful Italy we move to the reign of barbarity in the most
destructive war in the history of Germany up to 1939.
It is this war which is responsible for the structural differences between
the two plays. Galileo was the initiator ot the events which became
his fate. Mother Courage is not: the framework of her life, and thus of
the action, is supplied by the history of the war. A glance at the scene
titles found in the printed text and projected on to the half-curtain be-
fore each scene in performance shows this: those in Mother Courage
describe as much what the war does as what the heroine does; those in
Galileo are centred on the individual. In the text too private and public
action are counterpointed: the chaplain says the burial of Tilly is a his-
toric occasion; Mother Courage ripostes that, for her, having her daughter
hit over the head is a historic occasion (1408; 55; 6). For here history
is seen not from the viewpoint of leaders of opinion, but from that of the
ordinary people. Brecht defines the play as 'gestarium' (Aj., 1, 274:
24.4.41), a collection of instances of human behaviour or attitudes. In
keeping with this infinitely extensible structure, the ending is open, as
Mother Courage tries to start her business again. The subtle 'chronicle' is
intended as an analogy to the 'history' of the Shakespearean stage (Mat.
C., 86): it does not mean an account of the war. As Keith A. Dickson
has made clear, Mother Courage comes near the centre of historical
events only in scenes 5 and 6. Habsburg-Bourbon rivalry, the Dutch
problem, Bohemian and Hungarian nationalism, the League and the Union,
the policies of Richelieu and the speculations of Wallenstein- none of
them are mentioned. Gustav Adolf sets the scene with his preliminary
exercises in Poland; but his death changes nothing, except that Eilif is
executed in a short-lived peace after it. 5
The historical setting is chosen partly as a v-effect in its own right,
making the audience compare the seventeenth with the twentieth cen-
tury; partly with an eye to particular topical references- whilst Brecht
was writing the play Hitler invaded Poland, and the term 'man, beast
and wagon' (1374; 25; 3) echoes a gloating remark of his after the
Polish campaign. 6 But major historical parallels are absent. The main
point is to show an individual acting in a major war, and in order to
retain the balance of protagonist and setting, Brecht plays down the
mass brutality which was the Thirty Years War's greatest contribution
to historical progress: he does not mention that the siege of Magdeburg,
which costs Courage four shirts, cost 25,000 non-combatants their lives.
(III) WAR AND MARXISM
The starkest point of the presentation of war is at the beginning of scene

9. In Pomerania nuns have turned robbers and people have eaten babies;
the world is dying out; Mother Courage sees herself going through hell
with her wagon selling brimstone (1423; 68). The apocalyptic treatment
is to be taken seriously, and its emotional impact is heightened by the
scene setting. in which a charred, long-unrepaired crucifix draws ironic
attention to the religious wars which rage here so frequently that it is
not worth repairing the emblem of religion. 7 This chilling episode is the
precondition for the further effects of the play: the irony of the 'Song
of the Home' in scene 10, Kattrin's decision that she may as well sacri-
fice herself in scene 11. the horror of the war going on and on in scene 12.
All the last scenes are spine-chilling. Yet the beginning of scene 9 is also
only an episode. Once we have seen how horrible and hopeless a life in
the war is, and the apparent relief of a home in Utrecht has been dangled
before Mother Courage, things change. When she discovers Utrecht is not
open to Kattrin, she changes her attitude and faces this hellish war with
professional optimism once more: 'This winter'll pass -like all the others'
(1428; 72).
Mother Courage stays with the war because no alternative is open to
her and Kattrin. Once she has involved herself in the war, she cannot
withdraw: she becomes tragic. Brecht's original text, as performed in
1941, also shows her as kindly. She hands out her officers' shirts to help
the wounded of her own free will. 8 The Zurich audience consequently
saw her as an archetypal victim, a Niobe-figure weeping for her children
- even though the part was played by Therese Giehse, who was well
known for disencumbering mother-roles of the falsity and overstatement
that often attaches to them. 9 This had not been Brecht's intention, and for
the Berlin performance he tried to alter the emphasis_ In scene 12, for
instance, there is plenty to be sentimental about: to bury her last child,
whose death leaves her half-demented, Mother Courage uses her last
sheet and her last money. But the text of the lullaby shows an important
social element: the child of this singer is to have a better life than other
children. As this can only be done by depriving others of the scarce
means of life, it is a murderous thought. Brecht insists that the lullaby
be sung unsentimentally, and in general on 'a mode of acting that does
not aim at the identification of the audience with the heroine'; for she
learns nothing from her experiences, whereas the spectators are expected
to learn (Mat. C., 78). In the same scene, the peasants have their own
attitude: they show that they dislike Courage because for them she be-
longs to the unsettling and hostile elements, the rootless followers of war,
and specifically because she went off to make a profit and left her
daughter in the lurch. The final text, and its interpretation in the 1949
production, repeatedly shows Brecht trying to emphasise the mercantile
against the maternal. She loses each of her children while thinking of
money; but when it is put to her as a reproach- 'If you hadn't gone off
to the town to get your cut, maybe it wouldn't have happened' (1437;
80; 12)- she 'studiously fails to hear it' (Mat. C., 74). She is a split,
perhaps even schizoid character. one half mother, the other half courage;
she got the nickname running loaves through gunfire at the siege of Riga
to safeguard her profit (13 51; 5; 1). Where she is trying to do her best
for her children by making money. she is destroying them. Kattrin hates
her for her hardness (Mat. C.. 126). 'She takes her tradesmanship for
motherhood, but it destroys her children one after the other' (Mat. C., 94)
and turns her into a pathetic, stunned, mutilated and in no way wiser
woman at the end (Mat. C.. 126).
She trades unscrupulously. In introducing Eilif she defines intelligence
as the quality of being able to 'whip the breeches off a farmer's backside
before he could turn round' (1352; 6; 1). The qualities she sets store by
are the qualities that make money. 1 °Corruption is taken for granted in
war. When Swiss Cheese is arrested she puts her faith in bribery- 'Cor-
ruption is our only hope' (1388; 38). In scene 1, she and the recruiting
officer both want to make deals, and they use trickery: she frightens the
sergeant by foretelling his fate, he decoys her away while his colleague
negotiates with Eilif. To Brecht, such lack of scruple characterises war
and business alike; and Courage sees war as merely business, but with
lead instead of cheese (1409; 55; 7). She has come out to find the war,
could not wait till it came to Bamberg (1353; 7; 1). She is responsible for
her own fate, and for that of her children. Brecht believes in human free-
dom. 'Even for the petit-bourgeois Courage the decision "To partici-
pate or not to participate" was always left open in the play'. (Mat. C.,
78). The war that destroys her children is not a natural catastrophe
that breaks over her. This is not a pacifist play, but an anti-capitalist
play. 'War as business' is the theme: Brecht adapts a famous dictum
of Clausewitz to state: 'War is the continuation of business by other
means' (Mat. C., 17). That war is of itself evil is obvious; but what keeps
war going is love of gain, a motive which will overcome any pacific in-
tention and which must be removed first if war is ever to be abolished.
The great, like Tilly when he takes a bribe to spare Magdeburg from
plundering (1397; 45; 5), hope to profit from the war; if they were not
in it for the money, the little people such as Courage could not hope to
make their modest cut from it either (13 75; 26; 3). But just as Tilly fails
to benefit, dying during the campaign, so Courage makes no profit and
loses all her children.
No one helps her: in the war she has decided to join in, we see an
extreme case of the 'war of every man against every man' 11 which is
capitalism. Man behaves as a wolf to man. At the end, the peasants warn
Mother Courage against wolves and, what is worse, marauders. Brecht
had shown a woman profiting from war in the Widow Begbick, canteen-
keeper to the Indian f\rmy in Man is Man. But Begbick was alone in the
world; Courage has children, hostages to fortune, to be claimed one by
one. The sergeant tells her what she can expect from involvement in war:
she will have to give something in return for the expected profit (1355;
8; 1). The following piece of humbug in which she draws death-lots to
make her children fear the war produces a true prophecy- though she
is never to know it, for she does not hear of Eilif' s death. She is very
clear that war makes the common people injure each other for nothing
(1404; 51; 6), and curses it in scene 6 after Kattrin's injury, but is
supporting it again in scene 7 (and it would be wrong to place an interval
between the two scenes: the contradiction must be brought out12). Brecht
gives no dates for scenes 4 to 7: no new external events are needed to
accompany the process by which Courage's psychological wounds heal.
after Kattrin's disfigurement as after Swiss Cheese's death. 13 In scene
7 she says to go to the wall in war is a sign of weakness which would
also be fatal in peacetime; and being rich, she says war feeds one better.
Her false consciousness is obvious. She believes in war as right for her;
it is a wrong belief. Even when she curses war, she is counting stock
(1408; 55; 6). It is made difficult for the audience to participate in her
maternal emotion here; but one is freed by this distancing to feel higher
emotions- anger at her blindness, sorrow over those who are mutilated
and killed by it. 14 In scene 4. again, she shows a wrong attitude: in the
light of the realisation that God does not influence events in this world,
she chooses to adapt to the existing order (war) even where it hurts her,
rather than to revolt. In scene 7, fleetingly, it rewards her for her adapta-
tion.15 But by taking her advice and rejecting rebellion, the young soldier
is enabled to rise till in scene 11 he reappears as the lieutenant - and
murders Kattrin. Courage was wrong to capitulate; Helene Weigel made
the gap between herself and the figure clear in scene 4. It would be
fatal if the audience were tempted to agree with the lesson of the 'Song
of the Great Capitulation' (Mat. C., 45). For that lesson is that in the
pseudo-order of wartime - represented by the marching band - there is
no overall order within which one could realise useful plans. Proverbs
teaching the opposite, that activity to alter life is useful, are blatantly
contradicted by other proverbs. The figures in this scene do not oppose
war sufficiently to want to abolish it: they hope rather to profit from it.
So one must see both sides of this split character. Mother Courage
is a monster who drags her children across battlefield after battlefield;
she is also selfless enough to prefer war and Kattrin to peace and the
cook. Subjectively. she does her best for her children. Objectively, she
could not do worse. The critical arguments over whether Brecht meant to
construct a monster but was carried away by love of mother-figures tell
us little. except where the arguers, from their varying standpoints, face
the problem of the split character as reflecting a split society. Society
claims to uphold the values of gentle Jesus and bring truth and salva-
tion; it fulfils this claim by means of one of the most wantonly des-
tructive wars of history. Mother Courage does everything for her children
but kills them in the process. Her awareness is determined by her social
being; as a historical dialectician, Brecht cannot make her realise her
error (Mat. C., 88). She participates in the tragedy of her era in that she
does not and cannot know better; but the audience is not in the seven-
teenth century and must from its superior viewpoint recognise the false
logic implicit in the concept of religious war and the idea of doing good
to one's family through war. Brecht leaves no doubt that today such a
tragedy as hers should only be seen as avoidable.
Another 'Mother Courage' is the heroine of Brecht's next great play.
Shen Teh must oppress others in order to guarantee her unborn child a
good life. She is not seen in a better light because her maternal instinct
works thus: she is simply seen trying to deal with a conflict she alone
cannot solve. The defenceless woman becomes the capitalist exploiter-
who is not castigated, for he too is part of a society he cannot change.
'My standpoint ... can less than any other make the individual respon·
sible for relations whose creature he socially remains' (Marx. Preface to
Capital). Mother Courage is even worse off than Shen Teh: although
she limits charity from the outset to her own children. refusing to issue
linen from stock to tend the indigent wounded (where Kattrin does not
hesitate, and Shen Teh would not have either). she is unable with all her
hard-headedness to make a profit from war in the long run. and she loses
her children. All her good intentions are vitiated by her basically false
approach. her acceptance of war; they become paving-stones on the road
to hell. Precisely the gap between intention and effect. the fact that
Courage is not all bad. allows the spectator to be shown a contradiction
which will set him thinking.
Courage has opportunities for tragic. emotional effects. particularly
the death of Swiss Cheese and the episode in which she has to fail to
identify his body. Here the mother is given full rein. If in the episodes
during which she hopes to ransom him she has painfully to balance the
short-term aim of being sure of saving him against the long-term aim
of being economically able to continue keeping him and Kattrin after-
wards (and not even Kattrin is so naive as to be against the bargaining
-only against the undue delay. Mat. C.. 41£.). when he is dead the mer-
cantile element can drop from her temporarily. Helene Weigel exploited
the opportunity with the famous silent scream reminiscent of the horse
in Picasso's Guernica, which George Steiner found classically tragic.' 6
It is thought to be based on a wartime news photo entitled 'After the
Bombing (Singapore)' (reproduced Aj .• 1. 406: 5.4.42). When looking
at the body Helene Weigel wore an inimitable fixed smile. 17 Brecht un-
doubtedly underestimated the effect of this scene. which. together with the
death of Kattrin (who. with real dramatic pathos. hears just as she dies
that she has succeeded in raising the alarm 18) has always given the
audience its strongest impressions. outdistancing better constructed
scenes. One need not agree with Gray (p. 82) that Brecht meant to obviate
sympathy for Mother Courage altogether and thus ignore an essential
element of drama. but it is true that scene 3 gets its unwarranted atten-
tion for a piece of crass improbability. The Catholics have surely no
interest in executing Swiss Cheese in such a hurry. even after he has
admitted to having thrown the regimental cash where neither he nor
they can recover it. The following motif. incidentally. the bringing in of
the son's body despite the mother's previous attempt to save him. comes
from Synge's Riders to the Sea by way of Brecht's Senora Carrar's
Rifles- both plays in which empathy with the mother is more in order. 19
Mother Courage moves in a world where the great have the same
motives as she has. That she sees through their ideological front comes
about because she shares their basic viewpoint; and she cannot do other-
wise, she is quite adapted to her environment. 20 No one suggests what
else she could do. 'You admit you live off war. what else could you live
off?', says the sergeant (1355; 8; 1). She, like Galileo, makes her mis-
takes because the socio-economic situation exerts pressure on her. Eisler
(p. 25) points out that the play shows the poverty of the poor rather
than their badness - something Johanna Dark (Saint ]oan of the Stock-
yards) had already noted about her particular explorations of prole-
tarian life. One could add that the play shows not the great, not those
who started the war, but only the insignificant people who will be caught
up in it whether they stay in their Bambergs or not. Courage is 'free to
be crushed by it, or to support it- and still be crushed by it'. 21 From this
point of view it is legitimate to emphasise the tragic elements and reject
simplistic efforts to dismiss Courage as a mere class enemy. 22 Indeed, as a
small businesswoman she occasionally realises that the defeats of the
great may not be bad for her (1379; 29; 3), while their victories are, as
at Magdeburg, her defeats - only she does not draw the conclusions. 23 If
subjectively she has (in Marxian terms) the false consciousness of the
exploiting class, objectively she exists in the alienation of the exploited.
The existence of war exploits her, whether she approves or not. Even more
exploited than she are her children, and most of all the soldiers. The
soldier's song in scene 6 (1402; 49f.) shows that his time is not his own,
but the Emperor's. Another image of alienation is Eilif's description of
how he made his subordinates aggressive by keeping them short of meat:
'Their mouths'd water at the sound of any word beginning with M, like
mother' (1364; 16; 2) clearly refers to Pavlov's experiments with dogs,
and Brecht sees the conditioned reflex of behaviourist theory as a par-
ticularly striking instance of alienation. 24
The message that war is a continuation of capitalism by other means
was brought into the present in the programme notes of the Berliner
Ensemble, which print the relative profits of the Standard Oil Company
in peace and in wartime. Brecht has no desire to base pacifism on in-
dividual ethical judgments without reference to a social theory of the
origin of war or to a political group which could work on a practical level
to avoid the conditions which lead to war. Brecht certainly has views on
why a Communist pacifism was the only viable pacifism, but they do not
appear in the play, whose message thus remains apparently vague. They
do appear in an extra strophe and refrain which Brecht wrote but did not
intend for inclusion in the play:
A day will come when things will take a

New tum for us, it won't be long:
When we, the people, put an end to
The great long war of the great men ... 28
Brecht rejected the idea of an epilogue pointing the message on stylistic

grounds: it could only be a song. and a song could not organically
continue the content of the play. 26 All we have in the text is stray refer-
ences to, or possibilities of showing the common people as longing for
peace: the resistance that the sergeant says in scene 1 people put up
to getting the war going; the dazed relief of the old woman when peace
breaks out at the beginning of scene 8; the dumb insolence of the
soldiers when Kattrin captures their sympathy in scene 11.
There is however much that hints at possible opinions. Mother Cour-
age's statement about only rotten states needing virtues, for instance
(1365f.; 17; 2), leads one into the thick of Brecht's opposition to Nazism.
Around 1936 he satirises the 'spirit of self-sacrifice' which Jed the Germans
to submit to the Fuhrer's bestial discipline and participate in the cere-
monies and celebrations he arranged to distract them from their misery
(20. 183: Unpolitische Brief e). In Refugees' Conversations the theme re-
curs, and Ziffel complains of the number of virtues needed just to survive
in our century (14, 1496£.). In the play the war leaders have no heroic
or admirable points. and in the world they run Mother Courage's children
are ruined by their bravery. honesty. humanity. The order they make is,
as described by the sergeant at the beginning of the play (1349; 3), not
only a topsy-turvy one; it is also a mere power-system with no moral
backing and no conviction- the sergeant who is so eloquent about it
always stays at the rear in safety and sends others forward to earn glory
(1359; 12; 1). The power-system is also a profit-system. The soldier
thieves what and where he can; victory means booty for him, but Mother
Courage is worth a try as well: the soldier in scene 5 wants 'another
victory' when he tries to steal a bottle from her (1399; 47). Courage
ironically says she is sorry for the generals and emperors who know
nothing better than to conquer the world and be commemorated on a
statue, but whose plans are thrown into confusion by the common folk
who just want an evening's drinking. But she wants much more from
war herself. She must think of it as primarily a field for profiteering as
she does in scene 2, making a fast buck. Otherwise we must agree with
Gray (p. 129) that the outbreak of peace would not in fact ruin her:
most if not all of her stock is equally saleable in peace. though perhaps
not for inflated prices. But her profiteering is of no avail, she is poor at
the end. A symbolic aspect becomes apparent- 'the image of germany
looms up, carrying on wars for gain, destroying others and herself, learn-
ing nothing from any catastrophe' (A;., 2, 1004: 12.1.53).
(IV) GOODNESS AND VIRTUE
Each of the children has a virtue in which Mother Courage rests her trust;
each carries it to the point at which it offends the military ethos. Swiss
Cheese is executed because he takes honesty too far in looking after the
regimental cash; Kattrin is shot down trying to save the children of
Halle; Eilif carries over his bravery from war into peacetime, when it
becomes outlawry and is punished. Each is executed; none dies in battle
or accidentally. It is not the unforeseeable chance which dooms some
combatants to destruction and spares others that claims them, but
military discipline; not the disorder of war, but its order. Each death is
foreseeable, if not actually avoidable. Brecht is not concerned to get
pathetic effects from death on the battlefield; he wants to show that the
killing is no unfortunate accident, but an integral part of the ethos of
war (and thus of capitalism).
But in the context of the gestarium, it is important to be clear what
attitudes one defines as virtuous. Ronald Gray (pp. 130-6) finds Brecht's
guidance here unsatisfactory. Indeed, Mother Courage's views on virtues
in scene 2, and the cook's song in scene 9, are unhelpful and tend appar-
ently to put Kattrin's selflessness on the same level as Eilif's low cun-
ning. But looking at particular extracts out of context and asking whether
Brecht agrees with the speaker takes us only so far. The spectator must
be able to stand above what any or all the figures on stage say, and to
assess the results of the 'virtuous' actions, considering them in relation
to war. Eilif's bravery is only a 'virtue' in that in wartime it furthers
the cause of the right side - which of course begs the question of which
is the right side. With the coming of peace, even the organs of military
discipline quickly repudiate it. Swiss Cheese's honesty, though originally
intended by his mother as a counterweight to his stupidity, is turned
(thanks to that very stupidity) into a similar military virtue, whose sub-
jective aim is to please Swiss Cheese's superiors by faithfully returning
with the cashbox. The beneficiary of these qualities is thus the military
order, the exploiters. And these qualities are inculcated by ideologists
such as the chaplain in order to make people sacrifice themselves for the
rulers. Caesar- the cook's paradigm of boldness in scene 9- is in Brecht's
interpretation (in Mr. Julius Caesar's Business Deals) little more than
an Eilif, who gets his chance of making history when it suits the bankers.
Kattrin's good-heartedness, on the other hand, is a basically humane
urge to help the poor and defenceless. In scene 5 she incurs the odium of
unfilial behaviour to do good. In scene 9 she wants to steal away in
order to allow her mother to be happy with the cook, whilst the mother
in Mother Courage asserts herself touchingly in her refusal to counten-
ance this self-sacrifice. Finally she dies through her selflessness. One
could not imagine the cook so far forgetting the instinct of self-preser-
vation, so one sees his song as hypocritical. He is not virtuous. Yet he
is to be taken seriously. Confused as it may be, his song does point out
that charitable St Martin succeeds merely in bringing both himself and
the beggar to their deaths. It is not far-fetched to point out that Kat-
trin too kills herself and probably does not lessen the total number of
deaths in the war. So the cook's song makes us think about the theme
in hand and further distinguish between virtue that objectively helps
(as Kattrin and the chaplain did in scene 5) and virtue that defeats
its own ends. Obnoxious as he is, the cook has a little bit of truth on
his side.
And he is in general no warmonger. It is those who make war an
article of faith whose descriptions of virtue are always to be taken
ironically. They are the strong, cynical, unscrupulous. Over against them
the weak represent true, if ineffective, virtue. The epitome of weakness
in this sense is Kattrin. She scarcely counts as a person: dumbness
makes her an animal (1381: cf. 31- 'poor thing'; 3), unreceptive to
ideology and proof against hypocrisy, knowing only concrete dangers
and pleasures. She has no interest in war for profit. Profit is an abstract
to her, except when her mother points out that they have to make
money for her trousseau (1404; 51; 6). And the trousseau is no use to
her without peace, in that Mother Courage 'promised her she'll get a
husband- when it's peace' (1403; 50; 6)- so she is angry when the
chaplain proves that war can go on indefinitely. She is sexually frus-
trated because her mother will not let her, like Yvette, sell her body-
the only form in which love offers itself during war. When, in defending
the goods she associates with a trousseau, she is mutilated so that she
has no further chance of a man, she gives up, loses interest in Yvette's
sexy red shoes (1408; 54; 6)- her mother, conversely thinks it safe
to give her them now, as the scar on her brow will put off any soldier
attracted by the message of the red shoes - and becomes a 'beaten
animal. not without malevolence' (Mat. C., 82). Her face loses its ex-
pressiveness, her body its youthfulness. Yet (one of the contradictions
in character Brecht loves) one reason for her wanting a husband is that
she is 'so mad about children' (1408; 55; 6); this has been demonstrated
at the end of scene 5; it remains in force, and when her weakness for
children becomes stronger than her instinct of self-preservation- what
has she to live for? -she shows the quality of pure goodness. It is typical
of Brecht that such a virtue should proceed from a dialectical develop-
ment of character, if we are to sympathise with it. The good-humour
she shows early in the play- playing a mouth-organ, or discussing the
beauty of autumn with Swiss Cheese- is not goodness. To develop good-
ness she needs to be so maltreated that her own personality is no longer
of importance even to her. Then she shows a decisiveness that proves her
her mother's daughter: when in scene 11 the peasants, who put their
own lives first although they have relatives in the town, have concluded
they can do nothing but pray, she contradicts them by deeds, getting
the drum to warn the town. She has asserted her freedom from person-
al ties (a freedom she did not want) to perform a willed moral act in a
hostile situation. and we are allowed to share her emotions; but the
delineation of her development so far shows how inadequate these
emotions and her self-sacrifice are when unaccompanied by any inkling
of social mechanisms. When Brecht next shows a girl mad about children,
Grusha in the Chalk Circle, he gives her more social awareness. Togther
with Shen Teh, whose maternal feeling is only part of her general kind-
liness, these two figures make up Brecht's trilogy of caring feminine
characters set in the harsh masculine world of conflict. The real suffering
mother-animal in Mother Courage is Kattrin, and this was the role
written for Helene Weigel (non-speaking so that she could take it in a
planned Swedish production 27 ), though finally immortalised, like that of
Grusha, by Angelika Hurwicz.
Between Kattrin and Courage on a scale of goodness is the chaplain.
Whereas Kattrin forswears war and profit and sacrifices herself. her
mother embraces war and profit and restricts any goodness to her chil-
dren. The chaplain is less adapted to war than Courage, but more com-
promised than Kattrin. His profession, of which he is proud, is to bring
religion and war into harmony. His pseudo-theological justification of
Eilif's brutality is rightly taken by the commander as the work of a
Pharisee (1364; 16; 2). He is servile to the commander, who treats him
as a court jester. His job is to get soldiers into a mood to throw away
their lives for Christ; to be forced to become an odd-job man is an in-
dignity to him (1405£.; 52£.; 6). He is thus cut out for comic treatment.
From scene 3 on he is dependent on Mother Courage. who sometimes
makes him feel it; yet in scene 5 he rises above comedy and is the one
who gets at the shirts for bandages by simply lifting their owner out
of the way (1398; 46), as well as the one who rescues people from the
ruins. But unlike Kattrin he restricts himself to help after the event and
does not interfere in the business of war. He rises to the insight that
guilt in war belongs to those who start wars (1407; 54; 6); he accur-
ately describes Courage as a hyena of the battlefield, a scavenger (1414;
60; 8); he claims to have become a better man and less of a preacher
(1416; 61; 8}- but it is as a clergyman that he accompanies Eilif to
execution {1419; 64; 8}. He may suffer from the war, but he accepts his
role in it. 28
(v) LANGUAGE AND DUMBSHOW
No play of Brecht's uses more paradox and wit- which in keeping with
the subject-matter soon turns into black humour, starting with the
drama tis personae - Swiss Cheese is to earn his name when, in scene 3,
he stops eleven bullets. 29 (As a specially macabre note, the New York
Performance Group production had an interval after this scene and
members of the group served refreshments including Swiss cheese.)
Paradox enters with the opening dialogue on how war alone brings about
order. For Brecht order is often associated with war and with exploita-
tion. The subject is discussed at greater length in Refugees' Conversa-
tions {14. 1383-91). The dialogue in the play ingeniously confuses man,
beast and vegetable, as Fuegi (pp. 84-7) points out. He also notes that
when the recruiter admires the build of the boys he treats them like
horses or oxen- and indeed they are drawing the wagon. Everyone in the
play is at some stage a draught animal for the wagon of war. The scene
title uses the term abhanden kommen, to get mislaid, of Eilif, as if he
were some piece of lost property. Man is dehumanised in war.
This opening, as Hans Mayer (pp. 107f.) notes, also abandons surface
reality. Presumably middle-ranking soldiers did not talk like this in the
seventeenth century; they will have paid lip-service to official ideologies,
treated war as an evil necessary for religion and truth, even if in fact
they behaved as if they thought war right and natural and used it to
cloak their egoism. But here war presents itself without its mask. A
comic effect arises from socially unacceptable behaviour: we are tempted
to laugh at the soldiers as though they were innocents ignorant of con-
ventions of drawing-room behaviour. But the objective situation over-
takes our laughter. Similarly when in scene 3 the chaplain says the
religious war is 'pleasing unto God'. the cook glosses sarcastically: 'In
one sense it's a war because there's firelaying. putting people to the
sword, and plundering, not to mention a little raping, but it's different
from all other wars because it's a war of religion' (1373; 24, but I have
altered the translation). By leaving God out. he reduces war to the level
of this world. on which the definition religious war is meaningless; his
treating rape as scarcely worth mention is a touch of black humour. But
the same cook, in scene 8, when peace seems to be going badly for him,
will produce the ranting religious tone (1418; 63). Attitudes to religion
are a matter of circumstance, not of character.
From Mother Courage's first appearance, the exploitation of the
humorous gap between the semblance of logic and the seamy side of
reality becomes a standing feature of the play. She produces a whole
missal (1351; cf. 5- 'Bible'; 1). but quickly explains that it is for wrap-
ping cucumbers in. This comic discrepancy is a wry reference on a small
scale to the ideology of war: religion is the ostensible matter at stake,
but more tangible things really occupy everyone. The ridiculous descrip-
tion of her family with which Courage confuses the soldiers is a prime
example of the Bavarian humour Brecht learnt from Karl Valentin. which
is turned to serious use later with such statements as that the Poles in
Poland should not have interfered in their own affairs, or her reaction
to the chaplain's 'We're in God's hands now!'- 'I hope we're not as
desperate as that .. .' (1378; 29; 3). Hasek's Schweyk is also a model for
such humour (Aj., 1, 172: 19.9.40). Zeugma too has a tendentious effect,
in 'Do you know what we need in the army? Discipline!'- 'I was going
to say sausages' (1352; 6; 1). The description of the Fierling-Noyocki-
Haupt family, incidentally, anticipates a theme of The Caucasian Chalk
Circle, in that Swiss Cheese is described as taking after the Hungarian to
whom he owes the name Feyos, who didn't mind him but was not his
father (1353; 7). Heredity is of less importance in determining his hon-
esty than a sort of imprinting from the honest Hungarian. Similarly
Grusha will set out to make the Governor's son into a worker by force
of example and education.
Not only comic dialogue, but also lack of dialogue, is used to good
effect in the play. In scene 10 two figures appear on the stage, but remain
silent and do not express their feelings by gestures either. 'What is going
on in them is not to be shown; the audience can think it out for itself'
(Mat. C., 65). And one major character is dumb. Brecht uses various
theatrical techniques to allow her to be understood: her gestures, her
irrepressible activity where it is a matter of children or sex. The sounds
she makes are also meaningful; the actress should in rehearsal first put
in words what Kattrin is trying to say, then gradually reduce it to the
inadequate word-substitutes of the mute (Mat. C., 106f.). But there are
also literary ways of dealing with the problem of comprehending her: com-
ments on her by her mother. 30 What Mother Courage says about Kattrin
turns out to be true: 'you have a good heart' (1358; 11; 1); 'The war
frightens her' (1424; 69; 9). In a sense Mother Courage acts as her in-
terpreter, though she has to admit there are limits even to her under-
standing of her daughter (1408; 55; 6). She also interprets the boys, not
letting them speak for themselves. In scene 1, where she is trying to keep
the recruiting officer away from them, this is particularly obvious. Some-
times what she says is obviously untrue, but at other times she functions
as a narrator, reminding the audience of what has already been said in
dialogue (1369; 21; 3- Swiss Cheese's honesty). Thus she imposes her-
self as a central figure, but also to some extent (giving up her own char-
acter) as a commentator and mediator between stage and audience. She in
turn is the object of expositionary comments by others: Swiss Cheese
explains, when in the heat of argument she has no time to, 'She can look
into the future. Everyone says so' (1356; 9; 1). The descriptive note thus
given to the play is an epic element.
Difficulties of communication affect others besides Kattrin. The cook,
a Dutchman, was endowed by Ernst Busch (Berlin 1951) with a practi-
cally incomprehensible Dutch accent. A strong South German tinge is
suggested for Mother Courage and the boys by textual features: muta-
tions diverge from standard German (missing or introduced Umlaut),
final -e is elided, a redundant -s added to plural verb forms- 'Nehmts
mich mit' (1438; 12)- the conjunction 'vor' used instead of 'bevor',
'nix' and 'bissel' preferred to 'nichts' and 'bisschen', the interpolated
'halt' frequent, ambiguous forms of 'mogen' substituted for the flat-
footed future tense. Brecht also encouraged actors to use their native
dialects in rehearsal. 31 Furthermore, the syntax is broken up, word-
order and agreement often unconventional and expressive: 'Die zahlen
nicht, warum, die haben nix' (1397; cf. 45, 'They have nothing and they
pay nothing'; 5). Such sentences expressing reasons are particularly
prone to this emphasis- Brecht, as always, stressing logic and decision-
making, even if their processes go sadly wrong in Courage's case; her
wrongness is expressed by false logic in little comic interpolations: 'I
call him Swiss Cheese. Why? Because he's good at pulling wagons' (1353;
7; 1).32
Dialect serves Brecht as a way to shake the rigidity of the standard-
ised diction. Buhnendeutsch, of which the German stage used to be
proud (16, 731: Aus einem Brief an einen Schauspieler), and which
he thought bloodless, 'a thin shorthand without undertones or over-
tones' (Aj., 2, 916: 5.3.50). The seventeenth-century setting also comes
to his aid. Eisler (p. 57) remarks of Brecht's language that he starts
not from Lessing or Goethe, but from Luther. Luther's Bible and Grim-
melshausen's novels of the Thirty Years War period represent for Brecht
a stage at which German is unified - Luther had written his Bible in
the dialect of German which would be most readily understandable over
a wide area- but not forced into all-too-decorous standardisation, still
earthy and direct. Some archaisms ('allewege' and 'allhier') are taken
from Grimmelshausen; occasionally the Bible is quoted, usually against
the grain, as when the chaplain refuses to risk going through enemy
fire and says 'Blessed are the peacemakers' (1376; 26; 3)- not a text
he would choose for one of his pre-battle sermons. The German
language's stock of proverbs is drawn on particularly in the 'Song of
the Great Capitulation', both to spice the argument and- in accordance
with the tendency of the scene - to be held up as false wisdom. 'Der
Mensch denkt: Gott lenkt- I Keine Red davon!' (1395; not trans-
lated; 4) alters the sense of the original ('Man proposes, God disposes')
radically ('Man thinks God is in charge') by changing the usual punctu-
ation, then demolishes the proverb's and religion's claims by straight
negation. 33
Brecht likes to change the level of language too. 'Unhappy mother
that I am, rich only in a mother's sorrows! He dies. In the springtime
of his life, he must go. If he's a soldier, he must bite the dust, that's
clear' (1357; 10; 1- the German echoes Goethe's Faust before reach-
ing the Western imagery). There is no attempt to reproduce outer reality
or to write within a convention; a sort of comic inconsequentiality is
aimed at. At one point Brecht intended the opening dialogue to be in
Knittelvers, a doggerel-like rhymed form with irregular rhythm which
flowered in the sixteenth century and gives the modem ear an impres-
sion of naive clumsiness. 34 Perhaps this struck him finally as too comic
for the serious subject: the contentual paradoxes make their mark with-
out help from verse form.
(vi) THE SONGS
In performance the 'Courage Song', which in the text appears within

scene 1, was used by the Berliner Ensemble as a prelude: on to the empty
stage the wagon is pulled and the family sing the song before leaving
again. This alteration (Helene Weigel's idea- Mat. C., 18) transforms the
song from a conventionally operatic song self-introduction (like 'I am
the very model of a modern major-general') into a preface to the whole
play. It is used ironically. If here at the outset Mother Courage is happy
for the soldiers to be led into the jaws of hell (1351; not translated)
once she has sold them sausages and wine, she is not so happy for her
Eilif to be one of them. In scene 7 a new verse of the song - an answer
to arguments of the chaplain's which must be inferred as brought for-
ward before the scene begins- refers to soldiers' deaths in callous terms;
in scene 8 Eilif will die and she will not know about it. In scene 12 the
final verse is sung by soldiers off stage: chillingly, with the cheerful
marching rhythm set against the bleakness of the general situation and
Courage's particular situation, it summarises the objective misery of the
war and the subjective illusion- 'Jedoch vielleicht geschehn noch Wun-
der: I Der Feldzug ist noch nicht zu End!' (1438; reversed in the trans-
lation, 'miracles have had their day', 81). Brecht wrote the words to the
tune of an old French song which he had also set his Ballad of the
Pirates to; he insisted on Dessau using this melody, but Dessau altered
the metric arrangements to give it more decisiveness and less grace;
whilst strident subdominant chords in the accompaniment make a sug-
gestion of falsity and tell· the listener to be critical of the sentiments
expressed. In general Dessau likes to start from folk material and to
enrich it with harmonic and rhythmic variations.
The songs have very various functions. There are some approaches
to operatic treatment, as when Yvette explains in the 'Fraternization
Song' how she came to have her first lover and thus reached her present
situation. This song derives, by a long process of adaptation, from Kip-
ling's 'Mary. pity women! ' 35 The 'Song of the Great Capitulation' (scene
4) is part of an episodic sub-plot and carries it forward. Or a song has
ironical function, as when in the 'Song of the Vexations of Great Men'
(scene 9) - largely borrowed from the Threepenny Opera, and given a new
setting with harmonium, flute and trumpet accompaniment- the cook
implies that he shares the virtues he sings about, which he does not;
Mother Courage's children have them, but break into song less. When
Eilif does sing. the 'Song of the Fishwife and the Soldier' (scene 2), he
proves if anything that he has the virtue of bravery despite his mother's
lessons: he knows the song she taught him, but has disregarded its
moral and acted foolhardily. 86 The song is accompanied by dance and
comic acting- he caricatures the fishwife when he reports her words;
but she triumphs in the last stanza. In the 'Song of the Hours' (scene 3)
the chaplin, like the cook in scene 9, invokes a great parallel, of Christ
and Swiss Cheese. Again the lesson must be thought out by the audience.
Brecht borrowed the song with its bitter accusing tone from Christian
Weise (1642-1708), though there are parallels to a hymn of 1531 by
Michael Weisse too. 37 The songs thus all mean different things to the
singer, the hearers on stage and the audience.
Dessau's music adds its own touches. Just as Brecht's whole produc-
tion of the play was drab but elegant, so the music suggests a good
represenation of a shabby reality. The overture expresses by sparse in-
strumentation and paratactic themes an inadequate attempt to intro-
duce a vast panorama of war: the attempt to be solemn being cut across
by lack of practised musicians. Themes from the overture are repeated -
right through to the finale, at Brecht's suggestion. Brecht is also thought
to have suggested to Dessau an innovation used here which then became
one of Dessau's hallmarks: the 'Gitarrenklavier', a piano whose sou.J.d
is made like that of a guitar by pressing drawing-pins into the felt of the
hammers. This instrument can also produce an approximation to the
harpischord, useful for the 'Fraternization Song', where the main parts
of each stanza are in the genteel style of the period, with Volkslied
elements modified by fiorituri, and with keyboard accompaniment, whilst
a heavier and less sensitive harmony emphasises the vulgarity between
the lines towards the end of the stanzas. The music to the 'Song of the
Great Capitulation' expresses by dissonances- a motif in parallel ninths
- Dessau's disagreement with the sentiments of the close. The 'Song of
the Fishwife and the Soldier', a Kipling adaptation incidentally, set in
free rondo form, has similar dubiety expressed by unexpected modula-
tions. The 'Song of the Hours' has a concealed canon in the strophe, and
an introduction borrowed from an ancient source. The 'Song of the
Home' (scene 10) ha:s folk-song character. Part of the Luther hymn, 'A
mighty fortress is our God', is sung in scene 3 (omitted in the German
text, but the place is after 'in Ihrem Gesicht', 1374; in the English text,
25) to its usual melody unaccompanied (Mat. C., 39). In the 1951 re-
prise in the Berliner Ensemble, a Dutch song in praise of pipe-smoking
is sung by the cook to Mother Courage whilst they haggle over the
capon; their intimacy thus starts earlier. The other music of the play
consists of marches off (using three march themes, variously interwoven
in the course of the play), used to give v-effects, for instance by con-
trasting with the on-stage tableau at the end of scene 5. 88
(vu) THE SCENIC INTERPRETATION OF THE PLAY
The 1949 Berlin production, taken into the Berliner Ensemble repertoire,
reached 405 performances. Each scene is introduced by summaries or com-
mentaries projected on to a half-curtain. These texts anticipate the action
or the gestus of the scene and may also provide historical information
not found in the dialogue. That for scene 1 supplies the thought that
Eilif is only one of many men being recruited; that for scene 5 connects
Mother Courage's journeyings with the course of the war. 39 As in-
scriptions. the scene headings speak as it were over the head of the
dialogic and scenic presentation straight to the audience's intelligence,
and put across the scale of the war - which the stage could not convey
directly- and the lessons of the play. In scene 6 the title scarcely goes
beyond the content of the scene, for here Courage is allowed to put the
moral in words: 'Curse the war!' (1408; 55); but in all the following
scenes, when she has forgotten that flash of insight, the headings insist
ironically on the destructiveness of war.
The stage is bare at beginning and end. From nothing Mother Courage's
mercantile enterprises start; in nothing they end. The ground-tone of the
production is drab, and Wekwerth (pp. 279£.) dates from it the 'grey
period' of Brecht-theatre, a stage at which Brecht attempts to shock by
the painful contrast with the colourful. empty spectacles provided by
Nazism: hard-bitten sobriety against perverted belief and daemonic
intoxication. The wagon enters- 'a hybrid of military vehicle and market
stall' (Mat. C., 17). almost an actor in its own right: now smartly
painted and festooned with wares, later shabby and empty; now pulled on
by two strong youths, eventually pulled off by the owner alone. Its single
shaft has a crossbar near the front, which those pulling the wagon hold
to steer. Fuegi (pp. 88-90) draws attention to the symbolic cross thus
formed, which is of visual significance at various points of the action.
Perhaps he over-interprets; but certainly when Kattrin prepares to leave
her mother free to go with the cook, the raised shaft forms a cross
dominating the display of trousers and skirt and corresponding to the
crucifix specified in the setting for the scene - whose theme is virtue,
claimed and real. So the subject of Christianity's relationship with war
and commerce is, literally, never lost sight of. The wagon moves mainly
round the outer edge of the stage turntable; such trips are established
in the course of the play as showing the covering of ever greater dis-
tances, so that at the end a circuit of the stage, ending with the wagon
upstage and about to start a second circuit, signifies the indefinite pro-
longation of Courage's wanderings. 40 Another speaking prop is the drum
which is among the goods for which Kattrin suffers her wound in scene
6; it awakes the town of Halle in scene 11, and in an early production
in Rotterdam was the only item of stock hanging from the wagon as
Courage departs in scene 12 (Mat. C., 110) -a touch of masterly irony
thought up by Ruth Berlau.
For the songs a flown 'music emblem', an illuminated swag of seven-
teenth-century musical and martial attributes, is displayed. Whereas every-
thing practical- props, the roof for Kattrin's death- is realistic and
heavy, the guns perhaps real museum pieces, what is not to be used-
drops representing housefronts and so on- is merely sketched with atten-
tion to line but no claim to realism. A few tufts of grass signify a road-
side. Courage has on her the attributes of her profession, notably the
short knife with which she discourages attackers; the cook too shows
his calling by a knife, Yvette hers with large hat and red boots; whilst
the costume designer Kurt Palm had the idea of dressing Eilif shabbily
at first, but in costly black armour by the time he is executed: he has
enriched himself in war, but pays with his life (16, 768: Palm). The
chaplain wears an exaggerated Roman nose. Costumes are drab and un-
differentiated, warm and practical clothing which has seen too much use.
The play is carefully analysed into small gestic units. In scene 2 a
basic gestus of 'profiteering with food' (Aj., 1, 206: 9.12.40), cut across
by joy at Eilif's appearance, soon swings back as she raises the price
of the capon: everything she touches becomes mercantile, her reaction
to an event shows her attitudes. But directer characterisation is used too.
In scene 1 Swiss Cheese, ineffectual and simple as he is, is trying to look
warlike; Eilif too would obviously rather fight than pull the cart. What
their mother does in scene 1 is a reaction to their wish to join up -
although Swiss Cheese never puts it in words. Nor is Kattrin purely happy
- even at the beginning she does not intend to spend her life sitting
on her mother's cart. Mother Courage's jauntiness is matter for a grin,
rather than a smile: something is discordant inside her too. The happy
family is full of tensions even before the dialogue beginsY
Each gestic section is the basis for a grouping of figures on stage,
usually in an obvious manner: opponents opposite one another, allies
side by side. But the cook and chaplain, when they argue, may face away
from each other. 42 The wagon is often used to divide the stage, as in scene
1, where Courage moves away from Eilif and busies herself at one side of
it, whilst the recruiting officer strikes his bargain with Eilif on the other
side. Her movement turns out to have been symbolic of her whole
erroneous attitude: neglecting her children's true interests for the sake
of business. 43 No one moves on stage without a reason; at the begin-
ning, for example, sergeant and recruiting officer stay together at one
side of the stage until the wagon appears. After such a static period as
the beginning of scene 3, with Mother Courage unhurriedly mending
Swiss Cheese's underpants- she is scarcely ever idle- and chatting com-
fortably with Yvette at the cask which serves as a table, then taking
her visitor over to the other side of the wagon for a political talk, the
panic at the sudden attack when she rushes from one side of the stage
to the other in her haste to pack up and escape is all the more impres-
sive. Not that she has lost her head; Weigel gives a virtuoso perform-
ance of lightning packing- Mother Courage is used to alarms. And the
public according to Brecht has come to the theatre- inter alia- to see
familiar actions performed with unwonted skill. Meanwhile, as everyone
rushes about, the chaplain stands still and is in everyone's way: one of
the gratuitous comic effects Brecht the director loves (Mat. C., 34). Also
dependent on movement effects is scene 5, where Mother Courage drinks
to keep her spirits up, thus motivating her bad-tempered, tigerish activity
during the scene, from defence of the cart and its contents against the
chaplain and Kattrin, to the counter-attack on the thieving soldier. Having
sacrificed Swiss Cheese to the wagon in scene 3, she has become more
attached to it and to money- it was because she could not be open-
handed with money that she could not save him. The chaplain's move-
ments are, as always when he has something physical to do, clumsy; and
opposing the woman who after all feeds him is difficult; yet he has a
certain residual dignity, that of the clergyman giving a moral lead (Mat.
C., 48). Another instance of clumsiness is Eilif's sword dance in scene
2, taken with an appearance of strain and over-concentration as if he
had difficulty in remembering the steps; this particular martial art does
not come easy to him. In general, however, any point of the text where
business is indicated is an occasion for graceful movement or skilful
technique. In scene 2 the cook fishes mouldy meat out of the rubbish and
carries it to his chopping-board ceremoniously on the point of a knife;
and he prepares the capon with a dash, to impress his new lady-friend
(Mat. C., 29).
Much business can be added to elucidate the interworkings of society
and character. Thus in scene 6 Mother Courage's speech on Tilly is easier
to deliver if she is being watched by the scrivener, on the watch for
subversive statements she does not quite make (Mat. C., 52£.). Weigel
added the aside 'Lord, worms have got into the biscuits' (not in the
German text, but Mat. C., 53: 'Jesses, in den Zwieback sind mir die
Wiirmer gekommen'; 48) and laughed at it, thus freeing the amusement
she felt at teasing the scrivener (a rare borrowing by Brecht of an idea
from Freud). The soldier's song following is accompanied by a little
flirtation with Kattrin - the last reminder before her mutilation of her
potential for love (Mat. C., 53). The chaplain's role in this scene was
greatly built up in the 1951 reprise of the Berlin production. After losing
money gaming with the scrivener, he is sad, and tries to improve his
finances by rubbing a chalk mark off hi.s debt record on Courage's slate;
then he sees how unworthy this is, prays silently, and is thus prepared
to make himself popular with her by woodcutting - the closer their rela-
tions, the less she will remember his debts. But he drags the axe to the
block and works with as little effort as possible, emphasising that he still
sees himself as an intellectual, misused as a manual worker. 44 Courage,
prosperous in this scene, is a little softer; he is encouraged to propose
marriage, but she prefers a helper under her control to a husband. She
also speaks more warmly than she need of the cook; so when the latter
arrives in scene 8, though he and she only talk of ruin, we hear the affec-
tion between the lines better (Mat. C., 58). Kattrin, hurt in scene 6, is
bandaged in scene 7. In scene 8 the scar is shown, and when the cook
sees her he is taken aback for a moment; in scene 9 the scar makes him
decide not to offer her a home in Utrecht. 46
In accordance with Brecht's requirements of reading the text against
the grain, some parts of the dialogue can be undermined by reinterpre-
tation. The commander in scene 2 for instance will stand playing as an
absent-minded, effete aristocrat who goes without any conviction through
the routine of praising one of his soldiers and talking like a regular fellow
(Mat. C., 30). Such an interpretation strengthens the theme of social
class, not overtly developed in the text in this play. And Wekwerth notes
disarmingly that in the 1951 revision they discovered that Eilif's similar-
ity to the king, mentioned by the commander (1365; 17), is supposed to
consist of a liking for drink! So they gave him something bigger to drink
from (Mat. C., 115). Some speeches which are likely to arouse the spec-
tator's sympathy are given in super-cooled style: the peasants of scene
11 plead for their animals to be spared in the tone of people to whom
such crises are familiar, who have a form of words ready. Such threats
of destruction have become the norm. 'It pays to give up the "direct
impression" of the apparently unique, real horror, in order to reach
deeper layers of terror where frequent ever-recurring misfortune has
already forced people into making their gestures of self-defence a cere-
monial- which yet can never help them to avoid the actual real fear'
(Mat. C., 70). Absence of dialogue is taken as a hint. In scene 11 there
is a point where the soldiers stop making suggestions as to how to stop
Kattrin, and there may be some satisfaction in the first soldier's closing
line, 'She did it' (1436; 80). In between, the soldiers can show apathy
or bloody-mindedness, carry out orders only just fast enough to avoid
disciplinary action, and grin behind the officer's back (Mat. C., 73).
Tempo is in general not forced. Details are to be taken one at a time,
Brecht stresses (Mat. C., 25). Helene Weigel after each monetary trans-
action closed her leather purse with an audible snap before proceeding.
Running time is about 168 minutes, plus scene changes of never more
than two minutes and a single interval after scene 7.
After Weigel in Berlin, Brecht directed Therese Giehse in the part of
Mother Courage in Munich in 1950. Giehse's ideas included an ill-
tempered reception for Eilif in scene 2 even before the slap; in the
scene over Swiss Cheese's body, on the other hand, she preferred a
direct change of mood, inspecting the corpse as if insulted by the idea
she might have known such a criminal, then suddenly collapsing for-
wards from her stool after it was carried out. In scene 7 she staggered
and swung a bottle, so that drunkenness would forestall any empathy
with her view on war expressed here. In scene 9 -where Weigel intro-
duced the idea of feeding Kattrin the soup she brings (1428; 72) with a
spoon - Giehse also returned the soup-dish to the parsonage with deep
bowings and scrapings which show how far down the social scale she
has sunk- and also how old and stiff she is getting, too old to refuse
easily the cook's offer of a home. 46 Weigel took this up. In the same
episode Giehse's treatment of the word 'wagon' showed that she was
trying to avoid making Kattrin grateful to her. Yet at the end when
Courage has thrown the cook's things out of the wagon, both Weigel
and Giehse reached out for Kattrin's bundle to put into the wagon:
Giehse with obvious tenderness, but Weigel this time disguising her
love of Kattrin behind a show of impatience. 47 A good example of differ-
ing interpretations not interfering with the dramatic function of an
episode is afforded by the beginning of scene 3: Weigel gestures to
Swiss Cheese not to listen to her illegal dealings with the officer, then
tells him to be honest; Giehse allows Swiss Cheese to listen to the talk
despite the officer's misgivings, then tells him to be honest! (16, 754:
Uber den Cestus).
In the Berliner Ensemble, three young actresses were faced with the
task of playing old women: Carola Braunbock as the peasant woman in
scenes 11 and 12, Regine Lutz as Yvette, Kathe Reichel as the old woman
in scene 8. In each case Brecht declares against stock characterisations
of age by voice and movement, and insists that the individual mode of
the character's ageing be analysed. The peasant woman, about forty, is
aged by miscarriages and the loss of children, physical maltreatment by
parents and husband, spiritual brutalisation by pastors, and the neces-
sity of taking up servile attitudes in order to survive in wartime. Thus
she kneels to pray carefully, one knee at a time, and she prays in a
practised and formal manner, at the same time trying to involve Kat-
trin, who seems to her to have been brought up in irreligious ideas;
by this and by the fact that, despite her life-weariness, the fate of her
relatives in the town does in fact touch her, she seems to become more
sincere as the prayer goes on. Yvette ages in a more comfortable man-
ner, deformed by the twin pleasures she can indulge in as the wife of an
ancient colonel: eating and giving orders. She comes on padded and
powdered and snaps with stupid arrogance, the corners of her mouth
turned down. yet still has remnants of charm. The woman in scene 8
is less characterised by the text: the interpretation chosen was to make
her appear turned in on herself, unable immediately to take in the mean-
ing and importance of the news of peace: she cups her ear with her hand
as if mentally deaf (Mat. C., 70-2).
The play has supported many divergent interpretations. One, strange
to thl! European eye, is a thoroughgoing adaptation by Nick Wilkinson,
set in Africa and suited to local ideas of performance, which made some
of the audience think afresh about the Biafran war. 48 Another radical
departure is a New York Performance Group production: the play was
chosen mainly to provide the group with rewarding female roles. With
apparently unconscious Brechtianism Joan Macintosh (Mother Courage)
says 'I'm obviously not 50 years old, so there was no way to act that I
was 50, or to pretend that I was a mother. I did not want to get into
acting old age. I decided it would have to be me the performer, telling
the story about this other person.' The part of the commander was also
taken in a similar spirit by a woman. Perhaps further from Brecht was
the repeated use of a system of pulleys and harness for representing the
deaths of Swiss Cheese and Kattrin by dropping them violently to the
ground: it threatens the takeover of technology, a mistake Brecht saw
in Piscator's work. The decision to dispense with a movable wagon also
limits the possible effects. An interesting final touch: Courage strips
the clothing off her dead daughter before leaving to take up business
again. 49
6 The Good Person of Szechwan
Brecht started work on the play in Denmark in March 1939 on the basis
of an earlier. sketch Die Ware Liebe (1930}, but stopped in Sweden in
September. Completed in Finland, May-August 1940, the play was worked
over again in January 1941. 'it gave me more trouble than any other play
ever did' (Aj .• 1. 120: 29.6.40). The first performance was in Zurich on
4 February 1943. Music by Paul Dessau was written in 1947-8 and first
used in an American performance in 1948.1 The Berliner Ensemble pro-
duction by Benno Besson with Katrin Reichel in the lead opened on
5 October 1957.
(1) THE PLOT
Prologue: 'Difficulties of a Believer in Getting Satisfaction for his Gods.' 2

A street. Wang, a water-seller in the capital of poverty-stricken Szechwan
province, introduces himself to the audience and looks out for the three
high gods whose arrival has been adumbrated to him by a cattle-dealer.
They arrive, glad to see such a faithful believer, and ask him to find them
somewhere to stay. At the houses of the well-to-do he is refused or given
only grudging offers. The gods become despondent, having already visited
two provinces without finding a good person able to live decently. Even
Wang has a water measure with a false bottom. He runs himself off his
feet to find hospitality for them before thinking of the prostitute Shen Te
(Shen Teh in the English translation), who is incapable of saying no. Des-
pite ill-health and the need to make some money that night to pay her
rent, she agrees to take the gods in, which after a few complications is
accomplished.
In the morning they emerge, thankful to have found a good person;
Shen Teh's doubts about her morality they dismiss shortly; but when she
is finally driven to hinting about her money problems, they give her
something as payment for their lodging.
Scene 1: 'Quick Ruin of a Livelihood by Goodness.' A small tobacconist's.

In the three days since the gods went, leaving a thousand silver dollars,
Shen Teh has bought herself this business with which she hopes to
be able to give her penchant for doing good free reign, with doles of
rice for such people as Mrs Shin, the former owner of the shop, an in-
tolerable moaner and parasite; and her one-time landlord and his family,
who threw Shen Teh out when she was penniless, and now that they are
poor come demanding her charity. Shen Teh is unable to say no to them.
She even gives a cigarette to a passer-by who asks for it. The others, un-
willing to share their source of handouts, suggest Shen Teh should refuse
such people on the pretext that the shop is not hers but belongs to a
relative who demands exact bookkeeping. A carpenter comes and makes
a scene about the shelves, which, he claims, Mrs Shin has not paid for.
Shen Teh recognises his claim but needs time to pay; she allows the
parasites to persuade him to write out a bill to her non-existent cousin,
the fictive owner of the business. The landlady of the building, Mrs Mi
Tzu, comes with a form of agreement regarding the lease of the shop;
she wants personal references which the ex-prostitute cannot of course
provide. So Shen Teh unwillingly uses the name of her cousin, Shui Ta,
in Shung. Meanwhile various arrivals have swollen the number of the para-
site family to eight, and they all smoke and drink and sing a song to
entertain the hostess. They fight and demolish the shelving, and even
more of them arrive outside demanding entrance. Shen Teh sees her
dinghy pulled down by the hands of too many drowning people.
Interlude: Under a bridge. The gods appear to Wang in a dream and ask
him to watch the progress of Shen Teh's charity while they are looking
elsewhere for more good people.
Scene 2: 'Quick Rebuilding of a Livelihood by Hardness.' The Tobac-

conist's. The parasites are roused from sleep by a knocking, and let
in a young gentleman who introduces himself as the cousin Shui Ta. Shen
Teh, he says, is detained elsewhere and can do nothing for them any
more. They respond by planning a theft of cakes from the local baker and
a search party for Shen Teh to come and restrain Shui Ta. Shui Ta merely
reflects that no one person can help all the poor in the town, and sets
about dealing with the carpenter; since the shelves are made to measure
and it is no use taking them away, the carpenter has to accept a fifth of
the price he demanded. In order to get rid of the parasites, Shui Ta then
starts a leisurely conversation with the local policeman, which he pro-
longs until the cake thief returns and is thus caught red-handed. The
parasites are led off. Next the landlady: Shui Ta uses all his powers of
persuasion without getting her to revise her demand for six months' rent
in advance. The policeman, worried lest he lose such an excellent sup-
porter of authority as Shui Ta, helps him to think how to raise the sum:
marry Shen Teh off to some well-to-do man, to be found by a newspaper
The Good Person of Szechwan 115
advertisement which the policeman drafts for the relieved and grateful
cousin.
Scene 3: 'The Good Person, looking for one to help her, finds one
whom she can help.' Evening in a public park. Two prostitutes are waiting,
without much hope in view of the rainy weather, for customers, as Shen
Teh passes through on the way to meet a widower whom she hopes to
marry. She notices Yang Sun, a trained pilot who is looking for some-
where to hang himself because he cannot find a flying job. She stays with
him in order to stop his suicide, the immediate cause of which she sees
in the bad weather - the last straw to one who is so miserable. As her
sentimentality leads quickly to tears, it is soon unclear who is trying
to cheer whom up. They like each other. Shen Teh shows her good mood
by buying water from Wang although it is raining and she could have it
free.
Interlude: Wang's sleeping-place under a culvert. Wang tells the gods,

who appear to him in a dream, of Shen Teh's progress. They are not
dissatisfied with her charity but discontent that she has failed to pay
the carpenter: she must fulfil the letter of the law, and to see that
episode as regrettably necessary business ethics does not appeal to them
either; they are in an intolerant mood because they are finding no good
people anywhere.
Scene 4: 'Unfortunately only the cousin can help the beloved.' Square
in front of Shen Teh's shop. Shen Teh's neighbour, the stout barber Shu
Fu, chases Wang- whose water-vending he finds importunate- out of his
salon and hits him over the hand with a pair of curling tongs. Mrs Shin
and others, who are waiting for Shen Teh- who has been out all night-
commiserate. Shen Teh arrives with a lyrical monologue on the beauties
of the town in the morning, and goes into a neighbouring carpet shop
to buy a shawl. Shu Fu admires her beauty. Shen Teh discusses with the
old couple who own the carpet shop the necessity of raising a half-year's
rent; for the man she loves has no capital. The wife offers to lend her
the money, since they are favourably impressed by her charitableness. But
when Shen Teh comes across and has Wang's injured hand pointed out to
her, her happiness is dissipated. Everybody present agrees that Wang can
sue Shu Fu for damages, but none of them want anything to do with the
courts as witnesses. Such lack of solidarity shocks Shen Teh, who deter-
mines to go to court herself and say she saw the incident, rather than
leave Wang in the lurch.
Mrs Yang, Sun's mother, runs up. Sun has the chance of a job in Peking
but needs 500 dollars to clinch it. Shen Teh, clear that a pilot must be
given the chance to fly. immediately hands over the 200 dollars the old
couple have given her, and decides she will have to call on Shui Ta again
to raise the rest.
Interlude: Shen Teh dresses as Shui Ta whilst singing the 'Song of the
Defencelessness of the Good and the Gods'.
Scene 5: 'But the cousin discovers the badness of the beloved. This.
admittedly, does nothing to help the woman in love.' The tobacconist's.
Shui Ta is reading the paper and not listening to Mrs Shin's attempts
to marry Shen Teh off to Shu Fu. Sun arrives to see about his 300 dollars;
Shui Ta is cool and asks what the 500 dollars are needed for. Sun ex-
plains he has to induce the superintendent to find a pretext to sack a
good pilot. Shui Ta objects that the man could then sell Sun in the same
way in a short time; and the proposal means selling the shop. Sun should
rather run the shop - a proposal the pilot treats with scorn. Mrs Mi Tzu
comes and they try to sell the shop to her- Sun for 300 dollars, Shui Ta
for 500 so that he can repay the old couple. But as there is no written
agreement with them, Shui Ta is soon persuaded to come down to 300,
and provisional agreement is reached. There is however no spare money
for the expenses of a move to Peking, and it comes out that Sun intends
to go to Peking alone and leave the girl behind to fend for herself. Shui
Ta thereon claims the 200 dollars back and says Shen Teh will doubtless
not want to sell her shop on those terms. Sun disagrees: Shen Teh loves
him to distraction and will not listen to Shui Ta's reasonings. After he
has gone Shui Ta rants about the power of love which destroys all one's
ambitions. Mrs Shin thinks the time ripe for Shu Fu's courtship and brings
him. Shui Ta explains to him that Shen Teh has thrown away 200 dollars
in one day and the shop is on the brink of ruin. Shu Fu expresses his
readiness to help Shen Teh's charitable actions, for instance by lending
her empty houses to shelter the homeless in. Wang arrives with the
policeman, looking for his witness; Shui Ta gives him Shen Teh's new
shawl as a sling for his arm, but says Shen Teh did not witness the in-
cident and has too many troubles of her own to be able to start fresh
ones by perjuring herself for Wang; nor will Shui Ta do anything against
Shu Fu. Wang has to retreat, Shui Ta agrees to get Shen Teh to meet
Shu Fu for a discreet meal, and goes into the back room. Shu Fu con-
gratulates himself on his tact and generosity, and writes off Sun as a
rival of no account. Sun returns wanting to know what is going on, but
Shu Fu stops him going into the inner room where Shui Ta and Shen Teh
are talking. Shen Teh emerges and confirms that she espouses Shui Ta's
ideas. Sun however exerts himself. his fascination takes hold and Shen
Teh goes off with him.
Interlude: Shen Teh on her way to her wedding with Sun hopes that
what Sun said to Shui Ta was merely masculine boastfulness, and that
she will be able to persuade Sun to give up his aeronautical ambitions
and return the 200 dollars to the old couple, whom she had forgotten in
the excitement of the previous scene and who are now worried about the
safety of their money.
Scene 6: 'Where Shen Teh goes, Shui Ta cannot go.' Private room in a
cheap suburban restaurant. The wedding party is ready to begin, except
that Sun will not proceed because Shen Teh refuses to sell the shop for
him because of the 200 dollar debt. He has sent for Shui Ta to make it
clear to Shen Teh that if she holds out the creditors will seize the shop
anyway, so she would be better advised at least to sell it and secure
his job with the proceeds. Shen Teh remains unaware of this hitch. Sun
tries to pass the time with jokes, while the priest gets impatient. Mrs
Yang too is worried because the little wine they have ordered is running
out. Eventually they tell Shen Teh they are waiting for Shui Ta, and she
realises it is because of the 300 dollars; but Sun refuses to talk business
with her, he insists on seeing Shui Ta. Shen Teh says he cannot come.
Sun on the other hand is convinced he will and will bring the money.
Shen Teh says he will not, because he thinks Sun is going to abandon
her. Sun shows her two pieces of paper- two tickets to Peking! Shen
Teh is very tempted to throw caution to the winds, but still remembers
that if she completes the 500 for the job it can only be by robbing the
old couple - to say nothing of an innocent pilot in Peking who has to
lose his job. The guests are by now all aware that something is wrong;
the priest goes and the guests follow. Sun sees his ambitions thwarted.
Interlude: Wang's sleeping-place. In a dream Wang expresses to the gods

his fear that Shen Teh is too good for this world, that even the repeated
appearance of the hard-hearted cousin cannot save the shop. The gods
refuse to help: the good person is best shown by and in adversity-
though so far they have not found any good people living decently ...
Scene 7: 'To help Shen Teh's little son, Shui Ta has to sacrifice the little
sons of many people.' Yard behind Shen Teh's shop. Shen Teh faces ruin,
as to raise the old couple's money she has to sell out to Mrs Mi Tzu. But
Shu Fu arrives, incapable of standing by while her charity comes to such an
end, and gives her a blank cheque. Mrs. Shin finds this marvellous, but Shen
Teh has no intention of accepting the money. She is pregnant by Sun.
In a dramatic monologue she imagines herself with a growing son, a
budding aviator and cherry-thief. Wang comes with a little boy, a waif
whom he hopes Shen Teh will do something for. Shen Teh thinks of Shu
Fu's empty premises. Wang's hand is useless; she gives him things to sell
so that he can go to a doctor. Mrs Shin is annoyed that Shen Teh gives
away the little she has left. Two of the parasitical family arrive with bales
of tobacco they have stolen; they want Shen Teh to take care of them
until the police lose the scent, then they want to start a little factory.
Shen Teh agrees and they put the bales in the inner room. The orphan
meanwhile fishes in the rubbish for something to eat; Sben Teh vows
her son shall not have to do that, however hard she has to be to others
to guarantee it. She decides to turn into Shui Ta, she hopes for the last
time; Mrs Shin sees her going into the inner room and suspects what is
going on. Parasites gather, all hoping she will call Shui Ta and save the
shop so that they can start living off her again. Shui Ta emerges with
plans: they can all live in Shu Fu's warehouses and work- utilising the
tobacco Shen Teh has in the inner room. The shop will be kept, the rent
being paid by filling in Shu Fu's cheque for 10,000 dollars. The parasites
accept their fate with ill grace, the old couple and Wang are disappointed
at Shen Teh's disappearance.
Interlude: Wang reports to the gods that Shen Teh is unable to bear the
burden of so many commandments; but they do not agree with his sug-
gestions for reducing it.
Scene 8: 'What Shen Teh has promised is kept by Shui Ta.' Shui Ta's
tobacco factory. In Shu Fu's premises a number of poor families, very
crowded, are working. Mrs Yang comes to the front of the stage to report
how Sun has got on in Shui Ta's factory. The episodes of this story are
dramatised. First Mrs Yang goes to see Shui Ta, who had filed a writ
alleging breach of promise and fraud to the extent of 200 dollars. Sun has
of course spent the money. Shui Ta offers him the chance to pay it off
by working in the new tobacco factory. Soon Sun distinguishes himself
in Shui Ta's eyes by carrying three bales of tobacco at once to help
an aged colleague; Shui Ta sees this and orders the old worker too to
take three. On pay day Sun refuses a day's pay which is credited to him
by the foreman- who likes to make mistakes in the pay for the employ-
ees' benefit. Shui Ta thus becomes aware of this deception and Sun gets
the foreman's job. Instead of rising literally as a pilot, he rises in his
career on the earth, by insisting on hard work from all.
Scene 9: 'Has Shui Ta murdered his cousin Shen Teh?' Shen Teh's shop,
now a counting-house. The old couple have had a letter containing their
money, but Shui Ta cannot tell them where Shen Teh is. He is very fat-
seven months gone, and relying on Mrs Shin's well-paid discretion and
care. Sun comes with a briefcase and tries to get Shui Ta, who he thinks
has been slipping recently, to take some interest in the details of the
business. He attributes Shui Ta's vagueness and irritability to rumours
coursing in the area, and to rainy weather, which always makes Shui Ta
melancholy. Wang, outside, laments the loss of the good Shen Teh who
always bought water from him even in the rain, and who entered this
house months ago never to emerge. He comes in to ask Shui Ta for in-
formation, and in the course of talk lets drop that he knows she was
pregnant when she disappeared. He goes and Shui Ta retires to the inner
room. Sun is suddenly interested in Shen Teh again now that he sees
himself as a potential father; he hears sobbing within and suspects Shui
Ta is merely hiding Shen Teh. When Shui Ta returns Sun attempts to
blackmail him on this basis, threatening to join forces with Wang and
the police in searching for Shen Teh. When he has gone Shui Ta brings
out objects belonging to Shen Teh, but hides them under the table as he
hears steps: Mrs Mi Tzu and Shu Fu, with whom he is negotiating plans
to extend the tobacco manufactory and establish a chain of shops. Sun
and Wang return with the policeman. They find that there is no one
in the inner room, but a bundle of Shen Teh's things under the table;
Shui Ta goes to assist the police with their inquiries.
Interlude: Wang tells the gods of Shen Teh's disappearance and Shui Ta's
arrest. Since they have found no good people, but only war and misery,
and are on the point of having to admit that their moral system places
too great demands on people, they take a keen interest in Shen Teh and
decide she must be found.
Scene 10: 'The gods interrogate the murderer of their good person.'
Courtroom. The group of poor people despair of getting justice from the
trial, as Shui Ta has friends in common with the judge and has bribed him.
But instead of the judge the three gods appear. Shui Ta faints but re-
covers. The gods hear the policeman, Shu Fu and Mrs Mi Tzu in favour
of Shui Ta; the poor on the other hand list Shui Ta's misdeeds. Shui Ta
defends himself: he only came to do the dirty work necessary for the
popular Shen Teh to keep her shop, so he is hated. In a fast-moving
argument Shui Ta's business and personal dealings are summarised. He
insists throughout that all he did was intended to save Shen Teh from
being ruined by the excessive demands made on her charity, but eventu-
ally, worn down by the attacks, agrees to make a confession to the judges
alone. The court is cleared and Shui Ta unmasks himself. Shen Teh
describes her feelings and the difficulty of loving according to their
commandments: she was too small for their great plans. The first god
interrupts her, says they can be satisfied that there is someone bearing
the lantern of goodness in the world, and gives signs for a pink cloud to
collect them and return them to the higher regions. Shen Teh cannot
see how she is supposed to go on, among people she has disappointed,
pregnant, caught between Sun and Shu Fu. The witnesses re-enter to see
the disappearance of the gods, who allow Shen Teh to call in her cousin
not more than once a month and are deaf to her pleas that this is not
enough to help her.
Epilogue. An actor regrets the bitter ending of the play and invites the
audience to think of a solution: there must be a good one!
(11) THE PARABLE PLAY
The appearance of the gods attaches this play to an old theatrical tradi-
tion which reached its apogee in Raimund's Viennese magic-plays of the
last century where the juxtaposition of the human (all-too-human) and
divine worlds is used comically, satirically but still not without some
remnant of naive wonderment. The subject of a divine visitation is of
course one of the oldest in world literature. Reinhold Grimm speculates
that Brecht based his plot on the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrha
(Genesis 19): as Lot took in the two angels and was the only good
person of his town, so is Shen Teh in hers. The motif of the world or
town being saved if there are enough good people is shared. 3 The rest
of the story, admittedly, is radically altered. Esslin finds the first germ
of the subject in Brecht's biography in an incident of 1926 when Brecht,
Dahlin and Bronnen met with a shabby reception in Dresden; Brecht
wrote a poem at the time in which the three writers appear as gods able
to threaten rain and flooding (8, 158f.). Finally, the specific element of
the prostitute's hospitality to a god is to be found in Goethe's poem Der
Gott und die Bajadere.
Within this loose framework of tradition and reference, the plot is an
invented one, as is that of The Caucasian Chalk Circle, in which once
again the traditional motif will only be a jumping-off point for Brecht's
imagination; and it is invented with a single lesson in mind, which sets
it apart from Galileo but implies a close relationship with Mother
Courage: that play proves that war is a continuation of business by other
means, The Good Person shows that business is a kind of war. But it is a
play of obviously much more symbolic type. The symbolic narration point-
ing to a single lesson is in Brecht's terminology a parable. The characters
and situations of the parable are recognisable, logical within themselves
so as to be effective in stage terms. Factory workers, a poor self-employed
small trader, a prostitute turned shopkeeper, petty landlords, artisans,
layabouts - the persons of the play are familiar types generalised enough
for Brecht to make their story apply to all societies based on capitalist
exploitation.
The stage-directions' evocation of a transitional Szechwan, a province
whose sky is alternately occupied by gods and mail-planes, is obviously
unrealistic. Hans Mayer has shown that Szechwan is a model, a version
of a split pluralistic society reduced to a small scale and with salient
features emphasised, like Brecht's Mahagonny before it and Frisch's
Andorra and Diirrenmatt's Giillen (in The Visit) after it. The model is
very complex and fragile: 'interesting how every little euor of calculation
comes back at one with these thin steel constructions', Brecht notes
(Aj., 1, 45: 15.3.39). There are elements of massivity: Shen Teh is 'a
big strong person'; the town is 'big, dusty, un-livable in' (Aj., 1, 52: May
1939). But they are not very heavy anchors for a structure which has
nothing to spare, from the very formal exposition at the beginning lead-
ing into the gods' arrival. to the verse epilogue at the end after their final
departure: elements of circularity. Brecht uses the sequence of gestic
elements and controls the tempo with particular care, introducing short
lyrical interludes in Chinese style to add to the play's charm and a comic
scene when Sun and the wedding party wait in vain for the impossible.
The parable play supports better than other types straight apostrophes
to the public, the sheer fantasy of Wang's reports to the gods in his
dreams, and songs sticking out of the text. These make a contrast to the
more brutal parts of the content, the depiction of exploitation and
cruelty (see especially 1531-3: 41£.; opening sections of scene 4), but
also loosen the structure, provide something enjoyable and ornamental.
'hard where the aim is rigidly laid down to give the tiny little scenes
that element of iuesponsibility. chance, that feeling of just scraping
through (dieses . . . passable) that is called "life"!' (Aj., 1, 144:
9.8.40).
The action proceeds on differing planes. The plane of dramatic action
is broken up by the interludes with Wang and the gods, in which the
action is commented on, summarised and seen through the gods' eyes.
The apostrophes to the audience allow us to judge both of these planes
and their relationship, and thus come to a conclusion about the rele-
vance of the gods. 4 The constant reappearance of the gods with no sign
that they have power to do anything useful is part of Brecht's message.
Nor can he put gods on the stage without parody. Their trio at the end
bears echoes of Goethe's Faust II and of A Midsummer Night's Dream in
A. W. Schlegel's translation. Elsewhere too Brecht manages a little literary
satire, as when the unemployed man takes a cigarette in order to become
'a new man', the mystically transformed expressionist hero- and goes off
coughing (1509; 14; 1). Not that Brecht rejects the idea of a new man-
kind- the epilogue suggests it; but certainly not through tobacco
alone!
The rigid structure itself may be seen from a scheme from Brecht's
working notes (Shen Teh and her cousin are referred to by different
names at this stage, but the sense remains).
The Good Deeds of Li Gung
(1) sheltering a family
(3) saving a man in despair
(4) false witness for a victim
(5) trust in the beloved
(6) trust is not disappointed
(7) surety for those who want to improve themselves
(8) everything for her child
The Misdeeds of Lao Go

(2) delivering a family into prison
(4) discrediting the victim
(5) abandonment of the guarantors
(6) planning a marriage of convenience
(7) getting cheap premises by misrepresentation
(8) exploiting children
(9) exploiting the beloved (the tobacco queen) (Mat. S., 87)
Another note (Mat. S.• 88) consists of a list of bad deeds showing where
they are committed in the play.
With its complex action and psychological development, the play
tended to grow too long. Brecht seems to have feared it would grow to
five hours, and tried to cut it to two-and-a-half (Aj .• 1, 54: 15.7.39).
The plot has 'three sections chronologically presented and governed by
Shen Teh's three goals: to help her neighbors, to love her lover, and to
protect her unborn child from want.' 5 Between them, these three sec-
tions put the question of why evil flourishes in the world and good has
such a difficult time.
This play is more open-ended than any other of Brecht's. Mother
Courage went on with her war, but one could say that the loss of her
last child had some finality about it: whereas Shen Teh is pregnant and
only at the beginning of her troubles. Further sections like those in the
play might succeed each other indefinitely. The epilogue draws atten-
tion to this lack of an ending and asks the audience to supply it. 6 Thus
the communicative elements, the appeal to the recipient and the refer-
nee-back to reality are clearer here than anywhere else in Brecht.
(111) A CHINESE PLAY?
Brecht first took up the theme in a European context: when he took up

the Chinese locality he used it with caution. At one point he intended to
have the figures eating bread rather than rice- a desperate way of avoid-
ing the kind of local colour which makes the audience think such an
exotic play does not concern their own life (Aj., 1, 126: 2.7.40). The play
has nothing to do with twentieth-century Chinese developments, not be-
cause Brecht had never come across any information or could not have
written a topical play had he wanted - he apparently took details such
as the name Shu Fu from Friedrich Wolf's topical play Tai Yang erwacht,
staged by Piscator in 1931 -but because for his purposes he was more
interested in the classical Chinese. 7 Most names and quotations are
genuine. The poem demanding a blanket to cover the whole city (1512;
23f.; 2) is borrowed from Arthur Waley's anthology 170 Chinese Poems, 8
the reflection 'To let none go to waste .. .' (1553; 60; Interlude before 6)
is 'a reformulation of a saying by Mo Tzu as translated by Alfred Forke'.9
The dramaturgical techniques of self-presentation and commenting songs
have affinities with Chinese theatre: the title role with its 'charade work'
(Aj., 1, 45: 15.3.39), changing of clothes on stage, use of a mask, oppor-
tunity for an actress to play a man's role with the underlying demonstra-
tion of the woman hidden in the man, is inseparable from Brecht's
views on Chinese acting. Peach trees, cranes and silver dollars give local
colour.
Pseudo-Chinese, on the other hand, is the way in which members of
the lower classes are able to quote the classics : so is the gods' view that
suffering purifies (1565: 70; Interlude after 6)- a Christian element,
for in Chinese thought suffering merely deforms. Brecht's thought here
is closer to Chinese models, notably his favourite Mo Tzu (Me-ti), than is
the thinking of the gods- it is Shen Teh whose name means 'divine
effectiveness'. Antony Tatlow has pointed out also weighty parallels be-
tween Brecht and Mencius in the matter of the basic goodness of man
perverted by social circumstances, and of the difficulty of being bad,
which people only become because of the force of hunger and thirst. 10
(rv) THE GODS AND THE GOOD
The gods stand for exactly defined moral standards which the individual
is expected to reach regardless of his conditions of life. They are seen
investigating whether it is in fact possible for anyone to reach the stan-
dard of love, justice and honour (Interlude after 7). If one can, they
finally say. then all could. Such moral demands made without consider-
ation of each individual's social handicaps are reminiscent of Kant's
categorical imperative, which places the onus on each person to behave
so that his deeds could be taken as the paradigm of a universal and
benevolent law. Such idealism is to Brecht simply the ideological apolo-
gia for capitalism, with its stress on individual strivings both in the field
of money-making and in the field of moral self-perfection. Brecht wants
to examine the Kantian demands against the real background. Idealism
explains frustrations met by the individual in the pursuit of goodness by
concepts such as that of divine providence testing the individual with a
view to reward or punishment hereafter. Shen Teh's peculiarity is that,
rather than accepting the well-known paradox of a perfect God (gods)
creating an imperfect world, and doing her best in such a world, she
expects the gods to share her active, dynamic goodness and back up her
single-handed attempt to change the predicament of the inhabitants of
Szechwan. Wang, for instance, reconciles himself to his inability to keep
all the divine commandments properly; but she does not. In the 'Song
of the Defencelessness of the Good and the Gods' (Interlude after scene
4) she asks with increasing force why the gods do not have the armed
power to impose goodness on the world, why good is powerless. This
demand to know underlies the play- but because she unquestioningly
aligns herself with her idea of the gods, Shen Teh cannot perceive the
answer, which is that the gods have disqualified themselves from help-
ing.11 They represent a pantheon which refuses any responsibility for
economic affairs, sees earthly life increasingly dominated by economics,
and yet would like to cling to the fiction that it is in authority. This
declining class, comparable to the Church and the feudalists in Galileo.
is disunited within itself as to what concessions can be made to economic
and technical facts: whether they can admit that floods are due to
neglect of dams, not to their wrath (1491; 5; Prologue)- thus implying
that men are masters of their own fate; whether they can help Shen Teh
along or even compensate her for loss of earnings when she takes them
in. They show just that passivity which she does not; in a sarcastic re-
versal of the classical concept of deus ex machina 12 they call on a pink
cloud at the end to take them away and save them the embarrassment
of trying to regulate her existence. To admit a flaw in the world and
envisage changing it (1605; 107; 10) would be to deny their own divin-
ity; they prefer to believe, in the way long since castigated by Wilhelm
Busch, that 'nicht sein kann, was nicht sein dar£': what does not fit their
precepts is ipso facto impossible and illusory- a vulgar-idealist error.
They disappear into nothingness, the particular end Brecht reserves for
what has outlined its historical function and can be forgotten. They are,
to paraphrase Engels, 'Supreme Beings shut out from the whole existing
world: a contradiction in terms. and an insult to the feelings of religious
people'. 13
So Shen Teh cannot become a saint, the 'Angel to the Slums' (1604;
106; 10); her 'goldene Legende' (1607; 109- 'golden myth' is not quite
the same; Epilogue) cannot be written; what we see is not perfect be-
haviour, but the only possible behaviour of a potentially good person. 14
Martyrdom too is impossible: unlike Johanna Dark (Saint joan of the
Stockyards) Shen Teh is not free to ruin her health in working among
the poor and die in a passionate apotheosis. With a child on the way,
she must fight on and harden herself to the rest of the world as the
price of goodness to her flesh and blood.
Wang, at the beginning, awaits the gods' coming with the religious
expectation that they will transform the unholiness of earthly life. For
two thousand years the gods have been hearing that life is too hard for
their commandments to be fulfilled (1492; 6; Prologue). Brecht shows
what can really be expected from the return of the gods. 15 Wang tries
to mediate between gods and men, but men have other things to think
about. The gods are unable even to find lodgings by themselves, they are
quite dependent on man, only as important as men let them be. In fact
the presentation of the religious realm accords with Marx's thought
(Theses on Feuerbach, IV): 'that the secular foundation detaches itself
from itself and establishes itself in the clouds as an independent realm
is really only to be explained by the self-cleavage and self-contradictori-
ness of this secular basis. The latter must itself, therefore, first be
understood in its contradiction and then, by the removal of the contra-
diction, revolutionised in practice.' The gods represent a status quo and
oppose their inertia to any social change. Shen Teh's goodness, u&eful
to them as proof of the thesis that anyone can be good in the world they
set up, is also useful to the parasites who feed off Shen Teh. Like the
trees Wang mentions (Interlude after 6), she is cut down because she is
useful. But she grows again in the form of Shui Ta, becomes a duality,
the example of Luther's statement that man is always simul iustus et
peccator, just and sinful at the same time. In Luther's thought the con-
tradiction is resolved by divine grace, promising redemption from the
necessary sinfulness of human life and pardoning the sinner, if not the
sin. Shen Teh expects something of the sort from the gods when she
admits that she as a poor human was too small for their projects (1604;
106; 10). But they have no grace to bestow. 16 Brecht cannot pardon the
sinner: for the total of sinners adds up to bourgeois society, and the
individual bourgeois must not be accused and then absolved, but- in
the terms of the Communist Manifesto- be made impossible.
The gods by their unworldly generosity enable Shen Teh to convert
herself from a marginal petit-bourgeois (self-employed with no capital)
into a fully-fledged one (capital tied up in trading assets; no employees)
and thence- as Shui Ta- into a capitalist (exploiter of wage-labour). But
at the same time her natural goodness is codified into virtue17 - she is
supposed to live by the divine precepts in order to leave the divine pre-
judices unshaken. The dogmatisation of virtue, reaching its apogee with
Kant, accompanies the historical development of early capitalism. Accord-
ing to the Communist Manifesto the only way to remain an individual
is to be a capitalist. Only for the capitalist's benefit is society structured.
Thus here in the last scene the policeman introduces Shui Ta as 'a man
of principle ... always on the side of the law' (1598; 100). That he
saved Shen Teh from perjuring herself in the case of Wang against Shu Fu
is a point in his favour; yet precisely Shen Teh's false evidence would
have contributed to getting Wang justice, where all others hesitate to
oppose Shu Fu because of his riches and influence. 18 As later in The
Caucasian Chalk Circle, Brecht is for disregarding the forms and pre-
cepts of the law, a law which is an 'outgrowth of the conditions of
bourgeois production and bourgeois property' (Communist Manifesto)
and so ipso facto suspect.
Shen Teh's active goodness, the mainspring of the action, shows itself
primarily in generosity: the inability to say no. Nature is for Brecht un-
boundedly generous. In scene 3 the rain symbolises this, water enough to
waste- and it puts Wang out of work, as his song (1526f.; 36f.) graphic-
ally statesY Shen Teh buys water from Wang in the rain to refresh Sun
whom she saves from suicide: her bounty, like the rain, falls on the just
and the unjust. She fights throughout the play to unleash her affinity
with nature itself, to give as freely as the 'great udder of the clouds'
(a phrase from the song, 1527, lost in translation), to keep Sun happy, to
protect Wang, to feed her parasites, to provide for her baby. Others lack
this naturalness, and then she is shocked by their indifference: 'When an
injustice takes place in a town there must be an uproar .. .' (1536; 45; 4).
They are responsible for their own fates. But Shen Teh too is soon in-
volved in imperfection. When, to secure a basis for her charity, she
attempts to make a rich marriage, she is just as much a whore as when
she waited in the park for customers. In each case financial relationships
intrude on personal ones. When she falls in Jove with Sun she frees her-
self from the money nexus - only to fall back into it because he needs
her cash for his purposes. When we first see him he is about to hang
himself out of a frustrated desire to be a pilot. He is genuine enough,
he only wants to realise his talents; but that, in this imperfect world,
depends on money. Shen Teh's prosperity comes opportunely for him;
he involves her in expense. Love is, as Shui Ta says, a catastrophe- it
costs money (1546; 54; 5). And when Shen Teh loves, she moves in a
world where she is seen as a sex object. No sooner has she escaped the
life of a prostitute than she falls between Sun and Shu Fu, the one of
whom wants to get money from her by playing on her feelings, while
the other is willing to pay to be allowed to play on her feelings. The
transfer from prostitution to Jove, business to generosity, cannot be made
unilaterally. In her Jove for Sun, Shen Teh wants to provide him with
the means to satisfy his ambitions, to gratify her own wish for uncom-
mercial love, and to be fair to others by returning the old couple's 200
dollars on request. The task is hopeless: a penniless lover or husband is
something she cannot afford. 20 Later, obsessed by the welfare of her un-
born child, she can afford no goodness to anyone else. Her pregnancy
paradoxically does more to force her into masculine attitudes than any-
thing else in the play. 21 To assert herself. she has to behave like everyone
else: in a man's world, she must be a man.
The old couple lend money with the same self-denying goodness as
Shen Teh, and are indeed ruined when Shui Ta does not repay the debt
promptly; and they believe in no gods, pure as their goodness is. Un-
fortunately what they intend for the good Shen Teh becomes an element
in the calculations of Shui Ta, who happens to be a capitalist without
capital and dependent on money brought in by Shen Teh's reputation-
nobody is going to give him money. 'Why bark for him, they say, he's
a dog himself!' (Mat. S., 89). The same happens to Shu Fu's blank
cheque; but Shu Fu's munificence, coming from riches gained by brutality
such as he shows to Wang, is tainted. Giving money is a sign of good-
will, but of limited significance- objectively and subjectively.
A puzzling element in the configuration of the play is the one which
corresponds to those who help Shen Teh with money: the parasites who
batten on her goodness and take her money. The first to arrive of the
family of eight are her former landlord and his wife, who had thrown
her out when she was penniless. They are not too soft to make their way
in life, and they have. or had, property. Yet here they are, with all the
family including a niece who is prostitute, begging. Mrs Shin has just
sold the tobacco shop to Shen Teh for a four-figure sum, but immediately
she reappears with a rice-bowl, behaving as if Shen Teh had somehow
evicted her and left her to starve. Was she so deeply in debt that the
price of the shop went on repayments, and was Shen Teh such a bad
businesswoman as to buy this highly suspect business completely un-
examined? Then in the course of the play the poor who form Shui Ta's
workforce are joined by the carpenter and his family; is there not enough
work in Szechwan to keep him independent? The stage of economic
development at which the play is set is not the one at which manual
tradesmen are so easily put out of business, and even if we allow a little
licence here, we still have to ask - in vain - what the parade of the
utterly shiftless and temperamentally dishonest represented by the family
of eight is supposed to prove about economic relationships.
(v) THE SPLIT CHARACTER
Shen Teh/Shui Ta is the most clear-cut of all Brecht's split characters.

In the real world - and still more in Szechwan, the exaggerated model of
the real world - the prostitute with a heart of gold, that popular literary
paradox, has no chance. Brecht allows her to use the invented cousin:
not a bad, but a realistic cousin, Mayer (p. 177) suggests. He appears
with a theatrical flourish reminiscent of Pirandello; and he is not with-
out his own sense of the precariousness of existence, though it has a
social dimension shared by no Pirandello figure. His brutality is explained
by his upbringing 'in the gutter' (1546; 54; 5); he is keenly aware of the
dangers to the individual's survival which lurk in love and generosity. If
Shen Teh represents Brecht's pleasure principle- give freely of yourself-
Shui Ta represents his reality principle 22 - charity begins at home. He
exerts himself to subjectively good ends: to keep the shop on whose
profits Shen Teh's charity depends, to establish a secure future for the
child. Shen Teh would like to do these things but lacks the brutality. That
she unwillingly adopts the mask of the cousin does not make her com-
pletely brutal. Brecht wants not to attack capitalists, but to show what
makes a capitalist and how he too is subject to alienation. Other plays
have similar themes: Mother Courage sees- or thinks she sees- that only
by exploiting others can she do the right thing by her own children.
Shen Teh realises that to continue her charity she must exploit others.
Mother Courage at the end still hopes to make her fortune from war;
Shen Teh still does not realise that the gods, whilst demanding absolute
individual goodness, cannot provide her with the means to realise their
demand. 23 Yet unlike Mother Courage the play has not attracted many un-
Marxist or anti-Marxist interpretations: perhaps because the audience is
less tempted to empathise with a protagonist who appears for so much
of the play in the visually obvious form of an exploiter, rather than
claiming always to be the suffering mother-figure as Mother Courage does.
More or less schizophrenic variations in the conduct of the same char-
acter are of course nothing new in literature. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
may be said to have set the subject going. 24 Social pressures forcing the
meek and kindly individual to adopt an overbearing exterior are seen in
comic form in Voigt, the hero of Zuckmayer's Captain of Kopenick
(1930); unable to get valid personal papers from the bureaucratic
system by fair means, he adopts the uniform and bearing of an army
officer so that he can trick his way into a passport office (and, a born
loser, chooses a town hall without a passport office to raid). In Brecht's
work the theme occurs in Man is Man. Galy Gay, an ineffectual person
who, like Shen Teh, cannot say no, kindly agrees to help a squad of
soldiers out by standing in for an absent comrade- and is forcibly con-
verted into a brutal fighting machine. This benefits imperialism and
represents a social alienation. Many of Brecht's plays show the impulse
to do good coming up against social pressures. :none case, The Measures
Taken, the pressures are approved of: they are exerted by the Com-
munist party in the interest of the long-term amelioration of working
conditions, as against short-term help which alters nothing basic; the
young party worker lets his heart rule his head, jeopardises his comrades'
work and comes to a bad end. In Puntila the landowner is expansive,
easy-going and humane when drunk, a cold struggler to keep up his
position when sober. Like Shen Teh, he can be humane only by disre-
garding his alienation in the concrete socio-economic situation. 23 But his
case is a comic one: his excesses of humanity do not weaken his socio-
economic position.
Shen Teh lives in a world where many people need the generosity of
others; she has as the best part of her personality the desire to help
them, and (Brecht posits) it is objectively in line with social necessities.
But in a town whose systematised misery has dragged on for eleven
hundred years (1512; 23; 2) one person cannot help: the dinghy of in-
dividual charity is swamped by the numbers of the drowning (1508f.; 20;
1). Shen Teh is thus frustrated in trying to do good, as was Galileo in
trying to increase knowledge and ease human life. A society which allows
social injustice to go on, and does not even allow the charitable individual
to do his best to stop it, is for Brecht one that must be changed. Most
of us accustom ourselves to the evils which Shen Teh refuses to treat as
inevitable. She is sensitive and open to humane impulses, and to see
society through her eyes is a salutary experience for us. For her, goodness
-self-sacrifice- is a terrible temptation, a self-indulgence. She is not
completely selfless, but a Mensch, a human being, first (Aj.. 1, 116:
20.6.40). She wants to do good to herself as well as to others (1553; 60;
Interlude after 5), indulging in a love for Sun which is economic nonsense
when she has a rich widower lined up. Nor is Shui Ta completely ego-
istic: he returns the 200 dollars of the old couple (though too late); but
for most purposes he shows that 'in order to realise his goodness man
must renounce his goodness ... This tragic dilemma is clearly imposed
by society.' 26 The most extreme alienation is Shen Teh's alienation from
herself, the metamorphosis of the angel of the suburbs into the tobacco
king. Charity and exploitation are sides of the same coin. The better any
one of us tries to be, the more he is a potential victim of this transform-
ation. We should all like to be good. There is no figure in the play who
is purely an exploiter- Brecht removed a tobacco monopolist, Feb Pung,
who made things hard for Shen Teh, no doubt partly because trusts and
monopolies do not fit the stage of economic development shown in the
play. but also in order not to provide an easy target. Rather, the ex-
ploiters come from the ranks of the exploited. The dramatic rebuilding
of Shen Teh's personality is merely an extreme demonstration of this.
Becoming Shui Ta is deeply painful to Shen Teh (1603; 106; 10}; for
Brecht, to be evil is a hard fate, as the poem The Mask of Evil says - a
personal counterpart to the question Shen Teh asks the audience: 'To
trample on one's fellows I Is surely exhausting? .. .' (1570; 75; 7). Like
Galy Gay, Shen Teh is brainwashed into aggressiveness- though with
her the process is (apparently) reversible.
When the pregnant Shen Teh, seeing a child fishing in rubbish bins,
decides that her child shall not have to do that, she paradoxically needs
to be Shui Ta more than ever, to amass money for the child. The woman
must complete her armoury by drawing on the resources of the man;
the maternal instinct calls forth the paternal instinct. Feminine weak-
nesses, charity and love, must be limited by masculine hard-headedness
and ruthlessness in imposing a system of priorities. Shen Teh becomes
more deeply a mixture of the frustrated strivings and uninhibited brutal-
ities of capitalist, charitable homo sapiens: masculine and feminine, yin
and yang. This development also involves even the spectator who so far
has seen Shen Teh's charity as rather unnecessary softness to a set of
layabouts. Now, it is seen that even if we believe charity both begins
and ends at home, we must still- in the capitalist system - accept that
it requires brutality. Shen Teh will stop trying to save everyone else and
devote herself to one person and still - indeed more than ever- need
Shui Ta (1572; 77; 7). Furthermore, her wish to ensure that her child
will never see the odious but necessary Shui Ta threatens to cut him off
from true understanding of reality, of how his prosperity is achieved. 'The
life and happiness of the new generation is to rest on a fraud', on the
myth of a world 'without exploitation, competition and evil'Y Shen Teh,
who believes in the gods, comes finally to an ideology much like theirs,
with its blindness to glaring evils and its trust in pathetically weak mani-
festations of goodness; and so, though left in the lurch by the gods. she
never sees through them.
Where the drama is based so exclusively on one constructed character,
what have the rest of the cast to do? It might seem un-Brechtian to
suggest that, as in the visionary plays of Strindberg, they are partial reJ
flections of the central figure, yet it could help (as long as we remember
that. the central figure standing for certain social facts, her reflections
will do so too- not, as in Strindberg, remain quasi-unreal). What they
lack is her intensity of character and consequent suffering. She is an
extreme of goodness- 'She easily goes too far' (Mat. S., 88). But Wang
too exerts himself for the gods and for her so far as he can. and is so
conscious of moral demands that he exiles himself from the town when
he believes she has let the gods down and so exposed his promises as
empty (1509; 21; Interlude after 1). He has not her development, though;
he neither claims to live according to all the precepts of virtue, nor be-
comes a capitalist. His version of the good person's need to be hard in
order to survive is the minor deception of a false-bottomed water
measure.
Sun is less good, closer perhaps to a reflection of Shui Ta. ready to
take money from any source and climb over others. But Shen Teh loves
him, whereas she hates the necessity for Shui Ta. So Shui Ta is not so
remote from her as her subjective view would suggest. Sun shows the
full process of deformation by social pressures. whereas Shui Ta appears
fully hardened from the outset. Sun's goodness is gradually squeezed out.
As long as he is shown as a keen but frustrated pilot, one can sympa-
thise. Even at the wedding scene, there is no evidence that what he shows
Shen Teh is not indeed (contrary to his cynical hints to Shui Ta) two
tickets to Peking. But the chaos which reigns in capitalism makes him
suicidal by frustrating his talents, when there are more qualified pilots
than there are jobs; the attraction of Shen Teh for him becomes confused
with the attraction of a source of money; he even abandons marriage
to her because it is not accompanied by the extra 300 dollars needed to
secure the pilot's job. His hopes thus dashed, he presumably spends the
200 dollars he has got from her on drink, and is back in the same hope-
less situation as when he tried to hang himself. But this time he is ready
to give in and adapt to society- represented by Shui Ta, on whom he is
dependent because of the threatened lawsuit over the 200 dollars. At first
he is an unwilling worker; but soon his ambition to rise is at work again,
diverted into making the best of the given circumstances for himself.
Finally he is strong enough to make a bid for control of Shui Ta's busi-
ness. To underline the change from pure young love to corrupt capitalism
in his life, Brecht now brings on Mrs Mi Tzu as the repulsive lecher want-
ing to buy a fetching young man, just as Shu Fu wants to buy Shen Teh.
Shu Fu himself, incidentally, reflects the duality too; the generous
capitalist whose generosity depends on his ruthlessness. So all show some
version of Shen Teh's polarity, differing according to their social origin.
From poor to rich, all are engaged in various stages of the class struggle
which rages around and within them.
Brecht is not the first to see the social side of goodness. Goethe had
written the purest, least socially orientated drama of pure humanity in
Iphigenie, but not- as Mayer reminds us- without awareness that the
weavers of Apolda were hungry. Even for Goethe, the appeal to classical
morality, in isolation, is already a dubious way of dealing with the
catastrophic consequences of human frailty. By the 1830s Buchner can
show in Woyzeck that virtue depends on a certain level of income. Brecht
with his dialectical materialism wants to join the tradition of Buchner in
opposition to the typically German tradition of Kantian idealism, whose
uncritical propagation of the virtue of obedience to the established order
played a part in bringing Germany to the militaristic-feudalist debftcle
of 1914-18, which sparked off Brecht's revolt. 28
The play's ending is open, and the epilogue refuses to spell out a
lesson. Shen Teh has, however, drawn attention to the general future
rather than to her own specific future when she complains of the need
and desperation in this arduous world (1603; 105; 10). Brecht really does
see the future as open. Obviously a fresh set of gods is the least likely
solution. But new people are a possibility- some of the secondary char-
acters in the play could quite easily become less obnoxious by taking
lessons in oriental courtesy, without the need for Marxism. A certain
progress is seen through the theme of aviation. The sky of the play is
occupied alternately by aeroplanes, and by the gods' pink cloud. Whereas
the gods do nothing for anyone, the mail-plane brings 'To friends in far
countries I The friendly post' (1538; 47; 4)- where 'friendly' has over-
tones of a superior grace (Bonhoeffer, in one of his letters from prison,
uses the word speaking of God). Interpersonal relationships are taking
over from the age of belief.
But actually flying the planes is subject to human financial laws. Here
Marx comes in. To get a flying job one must. as everywhere in the capital-
ist economy. be cruel and corrupt and encompass the dismissal of a
'highly conscientious' pilot {1542; 50; 5) in order to replace him. Because
Sun has not the money to do this he cannot be a pilot. His person-
ality-distortions thus have their origin in a situation typical of capital-
ism. Communism. on the other hand, means for Brecht productivity. the
freeing of the individual to perform the tasks that most suit him. For
Sun, a different society is needed. In the meantime, the potential advances
in human relations brought about by technology are rendered impossible.
In Der Lindberghflug {'Lindbergh's Flight', 1928-9), Brecht had still seen
mainly the daring of the aviator and the positive technical advance
represented by his crossing the Atlantic. But in successive reworkings of
the subject, as Lindbergh became an influential proponent of fascism,
Brecht stressed more the arrogance of the pilot, the claims of the masses
to consideration in the exploitation of technical advances, the socially
retrograde role of the proud pioneer. In the second version of Galileo
the theme is to return in the form of the fateful consequences of the
scientist's cutting himself off from ideas of social advance. Here Sun
shows successively the arrogance of the pilot and the arrogance of the
foreman (did Brecht know a certain p~rody of The Red Flag?), thus
demonstrating Brecht's social point with greater accuracy than in the
Lehrstucke and perhaps less strain than in Galileo.
(VI) EPIC-DRAMATIC TECHNIQUES
A salient feature of the play is little monologues set apart from the
action, often in free rhythms or at any rate set out as poems of oriental
type in which metrical qualities are less important than the extreme
brevity. the recognisable progression of thought and the striking con-
clusion. Thus in the five lines 'They are bad .. .' (1502; 15; 1) a lesson
about badness is presented by a progression from vagueness to a specific
accusation in the third line, then the statement of the justification for
the vice and a rhetorical question. And the lesson, that the individual is
not to blame for his own badness, is obviously relevant to the play. Such
passages are in effect little parables within the parable play. The songs are
similarly parabolic and contribute to the statement of the play's theme;
they may have much or little to do with the action in which they are
embedded. The 'Song of the Eighth Elephant' (1582f.; 87f.; 8)- in a vein
influenced by Kipling 29 - has most to do with the action, having a content
parallel to the situation in the scene and being intended by the workers
to provoke Sun - though he does not rise to the bait. Singing is not
enough to make him feel his position is endangered; he even enjoys the
manifestation of rebelliousness and encourages it: the workers get rid of
their discontent, and rhythmic singing increases the production rate. The
'Song of the Smoke' (1507f.; 19f.; 1), on the other hand, is introduced
as entertainment and has a more complex relationship to action and
theme of the play. Like the 'Song of the Great Capitulation' in Mother
Courage it inculcates resignation or inactivity, and just after it Shen Teh
seems about to despair. But those who sing it are not themselves resigned
or inactive in fact (the same is true of the 'Song of Green Cheese' in
scene 6). F01: most of the figures of the play, despair and activity alter-
nate; they sometimes feel like giving up, as Sun does after scene 6 or
Shen Teh after scene 1; then they return to attempts to shape their own
fate. The motif of smoke seems to be taken from a poem of Nietzsche's
on the fate of the social outcast; and the tone of the whole is asocial.
a reflection of Brecht's early nihilism- the song is an adaptation of his
Der Gesang aus der Opiumhohle ('Song from the Opium Den', 8, 90£.) of
about 1920. The audience has to formulate its own views on the lesson
of the song without direct help from the context. In the Wuppertal pro-
duction of 1955 Shen Teh came forward while it was being sung and
drew the audience's attention to the family sitting around motionless. 80
We are intended to start thinking.
The same applies to the epilogue in which a member of the cast admits
that the solution to the play's problem has not been found. We have
been given enough encouragement to think in terms of social change,
but not had specific remedies suggested to us. Furthermore, we are being
addressed now not by a figure in the play but by an actor, a member of
the same society and a child of the same age as ourselves. Brecht's words
are quoted to us as still relevant. When we are directly addressed during
the play, we may also be encouraged to be aware that it is an actress
who is talking. Then such an aside as that in scene 3: 'In our country I
There should be no dreary evenings . . .' takes on shock value: it says
that, so many years after Brecht, the country we live in is still a miser-
able place.
In scene 8 Mrs Yang takes the role of narrator, standing between
actors and public to 'describe' (1578; 83} and comment on a series of
episodes showing Sun's rise to be Shui Ta's foreman. At the beginning
of the scene, without moving. she shifts the setting from an unspecified
place to the area in front of Shu Fu's houses: she as it were conjures
them up and Shui Ta with them. The whole scene is treated as a short
story and we see the events of a three-month period through the first-
person narrator. 31 But there again we must think: her attitudes are not to
be shared, we should be on our guard against thinking. for instance, that
Sun really has bettered himself (1582; 86). The narrator. however, can-
not impose herself completely on the story, any more than can the narra-
tor in fiction; the episodes themselves are valid representations of social
reality.
Shen Teh's asides to audience too have to be thought about and per-
haps taken against the grain. Her lapidary abstractions about the need
for patience and forbearance (1503; 15; 1) are all very well, but in the
plot context the carpenter points out that as no one is patient with him
he cannot be patient with Shen Teh: he needs money to feed his family.
A virtue- patience - practised by one person is no virtue.
At least two figures speak to the audience as to a jury which can decide
on their claims: in scene 4 Shu Fu announcing his love for Shen Teh
(1533; 42)- but his behaviour to Wang just before has shown us what
to think of his protestations; in scene 9 Sun showing indignation at the
news of Shen Teh's pregnancy having been kept from him- but one
realises that he has financial interests rather than pure paternal feelings,
he wants a stick to beat Shui Ta with in order to take over the firm him-
self after a scandal (1588f.; 92). In any case his feelings for others are
suspect to us. Thus by being appealed to directly the public is encouraged
to form judgments about the behaviour of the characters. rather than sit
back ;tnd let the plot flow over it.
Less dubious apostrophes to the public explain behaviour, report events
or create a mood. Thus in scene 6 Shen Teh reminds us of those who are
absent but the thought of whom must help her to resist Sun's attempt to
drag her down (1560f.; 66f.). At the outset Wang supplies an exposition;
and in scene 1 Shen Teh brings it up to date (1499; 12). with due atten-
tion to money. Her summary between scenes 5 and 6 is an instance of
events being arbitrarily excluded from the dialogue and reported instead:
Brecht accentuates the psychological aspect by having Shen Teh report
her emotions at the meeting with the carpet-dealer's wife and super-
imposing her emotions at the time of reporting. She tries to minimise her
shock by optimistic arguments about Sun (1553; 60). In scene 4 we saw
the mood for which she reproaches herself: the mood in which love trans-
figures everything. even the town at dawn. and enables her to forget
money (1532f.; 42).
Like other Brecht plays. The Good Person often requires reading against
the grain or reading between the lines. The old couple smile at each other
(1534; 44; 4) when Shen Teh. in thanking them for their help, men-
tions the gods. A note (Mat. S.. 89) shows that they do not believe in
the gods and are merely trying not to offend Shen Teh by contradicting
her. The gods also help in their own discrediting with their farewell
'mach's gut!' (1605; cf. 107, 'good luck'; 10), a phrase usually equivalent
to 'be seeing you', but literally 'do it well'. Brecht takes the debased
locution in its stronger sense too: the gods leave Shen Teh to get on with
the job, disclaiming responsibility.
Never staged by Brecht, the play has a generally disappointing stage
history, perhaps largely because of the difficulty of the leading part. Apart
from the first Zurich and Berlin performances, mention should be made
of the Synthaxis Theater Company production in Santa Monica with the
gods descending on rollerskates and ascending on an escalator, 32 and of
the Milan production with sets by Luciano Damiani of fragile lyricism:
white backdrops. pastel colours. 33 For Hamburg, Damiani added rubbish
and puddles of water on the stage. Other productions have used movable
screens. Departing from the principle of full light. Brecht demands pink
clouds for the departure of the gods (Schiller had asked for pink light
for the transfiguration at the end of The Maid of Orleans, an obvious
target for Brecht's parody, representing the idealistic tradition in drama 34).
A contrast of setting is formed by the tobacco factory in scene 8; Shu Fu's
sheds, too damp for his goods, are good enough for people, the crowd-
ing indescribable, the activity with children lugging bales of tobacco and
so forth hectic.
(vn) MICROSTRUCTURES
Small touches of humour contrast with but also correspond to the heavy
moral theme of the play. Thus Hinck (p. 67) sees in Shu Fu, unpleasant
little barber but also rich merchant, ridiculously and unsuccessfully loving
a younger woman. alternately calculating and generous, analogies with the
Pantaloon of the Commedia dell'arte. But Shu Fu in his self-contradic-
tions is also one of the characters who reflect Shen Teh's split. Another
piece of Brechtian humour is that Wang learns of the gods' approach from
a cattle-dealer. not an oracle or anything of the sort; and so earthly
are these unworldly gods that when they go, one of them is afraid their
having given Shen Teh money will be misunderstood. 3 ~
Brecht echoes things the audience will find familiar. The numbers three
and seven, important in Christian imagery, are used repeatedly with no
religious implications, simply for their associations. Wang waits three
days for the goods; three days later Shen Teh buys her shop: Shui Ta
comes thrice, and so on. The number seven occurs in the 'Song of the
Eighth Elephant'. 36 More functional is the use of officialese, which as in
Mother Courage shows the dehumanisation of man, not in war now, but
in business. 37 Shui Ta announces his plans in a form all the harsher for
its euphemistic tone: 'an unpredictable eventuality, which may have cer-
tain consequences .. .' (1591; 94; 9).
Shen Teh's language is carefully worked out. Righteous anger at social
wrongs is marked by speeches in free rhythm with an interrogative
isolated by a line division: 'How I But for patience could we live to-
gether?' {1503; 16; 1). Lyrical expressions of goodness have adjectival
phrases as apparent afterthoughts: 'But I want your water, Wang. I
'Laboriously carried I Exhausting to its bearer .. .' {1527f.; 37; 3). A
bald statement, itself proof of goodness, is filled out with words which
add grace to the goodness.
Her preceding talk with Sun in the park (1522-6; 32-6) is one of the
best passages for exemplifying gestic language. The dialogue proceeds
not with the pseudo-logic of much dramatic dialogue, but with the leaps
and undertones of real life; its realism is modified by the need to demon-
strate, one by one, the stages in this particular model of human rela-
tionships; and the progress of the dialogue is dependent on scenic
elements. In the first phase Shen Teh seeks an understanding with Sun
which he is unwilling to enter into. What he says up to and including
his speech on being an unemployed pilot is concerned with himself; yet
it opens with a passage of social intent, directly drawing the audience's
attenion to the persistence of the prostitutes. Brecht means us to see
something Sun has certainly not thought out: that it is the poverty of
these women which forces them to work on in the rain. This speech is
rhetorical with its threefold repetition of 'selbst' ('even' occurs twice
only in the translation) and its biblical parallelisms. In the following
dialogue Sun reverts to greater naturalness. He rejects her interest,
claiming she has bandy legs in order to alienate her. But even before this
the phrase 'einen Becher Wasser kaufen vorher' with its shy reference to
his impending suicide (missed in translation) has hinted that his suicide
is really meant to draw attention to himself. as many suicide attempts
are. And since she - a lovely touch - sets about proving that her legs are
not crooked by pulling up her skirt (Brecht typically spares himself the
stage direction for something deducible from the dialogue), he very
quickly lets her shelter under his 'bloody tree'. His self-presentation,
mainly in pilots' jargon and colloquial style, is convincing enough to
show Sun's feeling for the work of a pilot. But the sentence 'Das kommt
nur in eine Kiste, wei! es den Hangarverwalter schmieren kann' deserves
extra attention (the English omits the vital nur. 'only': 'Gets into a kite
by bribing the hangar superintendent'). This is just the way in which
Sun a little later hopes to get a job. By the strains of the socio-economic
system he is immediately reduced to the level of the pilots he despises.
The full import of this sentnce is only apparent later: it is a copybook
example of dramatic irony, an age-old technique which Brecht takes
up with a new function. Whereas traditional dramatic irony points to
the workings of inscrutable fate cutting across human plans and reso-
lutions, Brecht's points to the workings of the economic system: some-
thing made by man and in due course alterable by men. And when men
have altered it, then it will be possible for a Sun to be happy that he
knows his flying manuals, instead of worrying about that page which says
'Airmen Not Wanted'.
As Sun's long speech has issued in generalisations (allowing the re-
currence of rhetorical parallelisms and other similar techniques), so
Shen Teh's story of the crane, marking the new section of dialogue, is
of parabolic nature. The crane at once represents and symbolises the
aviator. The restlessness of the crane when its fellows migrate recalls
Sun's watching a plane just before Shen Teh sees him. But in this form
the story of the frustrated flier take on a wider symbolic significance
and we see that Sun himself too is symbolic - of all those who are pre-
vented from living as nature intended; and Shen Teh is half laughing,
half crying because whilst the crane could not be helped, she is full of
confidence that Sun can be helped. As yet (dramatic irony again) she
does not know the trouble helping Sun is going to make for. her.
When the female takes the lead in a relationship the male is the appar-
ently active party. So now, disarmed by her story and her tears, Sun
takes an interest in her which is the sign of his return to life, and when
she remains silent he insists on filling the silence with talk. BreCht helps
the dialogue over this embarrassing stage iii a budding affair by giving
Shen Teh her monologue-poem on the danger of dreary evenings and
high bridges: the last straws in a country so miserable. But the gestus
is not so simple as that. To Sun, Shen Teh optimistically says the dreari-
ness of the evening was the sole cause of his suicidal mood. To the
audience she admits the truth: that poverty and wretchedness are at the
root of the trouble. Shen Teh next has to describe her life. Compared
with Sun's life-story hers is lacking in brilliance and verve and Sun
continually has to keep her going. But her factuality and painful honesty
hint that Sun may be rather hypocritical with his smooth tongue. Yet
there is more. She imitates a masculine voice not in deadly seriousness,
as when she takes the role of Shui Ta, but for entertainment. And she
couches her feelings at being able to give up prostitution in a short poem
which has its social barb too: it is a topsy-turvy situation in which a
woman can be glad to look forward to a year with no man.
The next paradox follows quickly and leads into the third phase of
the dialogue, in which Sun has the initiative. Now the social truth too
can be expressed by Sun: 'Easily satisfied, you are. God, what a town'
is his variant on her poem about dreary evenings. If a little suffices to
make Sun suicidal, a little suffices to make Shen Teh happy. Shen Teh's
attempt to moralise after this sounds too eager, too naive. It seems
dramaturgically false that in this over-bright speech she should introduce
some of Brecht's favourite ideas: the generosity of the poor, the basic
kindliness of productive activities of all kinds. Sun effortlessly re-
establishes his mastery of the situation afterwards by teasing Shen Teh
a little; and although they have now established a personal relationship
he still calls her 'sister' as if she were any old prostitute. She needs him,
already, more than he needs her.
A bight point of the play's lyricism is Shen Teh's long monologue on
the town in the early morning as seen through the eyes of one in love
(1532f.; 42; 4). Brecht takes up the tradition by which the lover sees
nature in a more friendly light; but the nature he invokes is the town-
scape - and not with the scene transfigured by being still asleep and not
showing the signs of vulgar human activity, as in Wordsworth's sonnet
on Westminster Bridge, but in the process of awakening and going about
its business. Not only is work Shen Teh has actually seen going on des-
cribed, but the city is compared to an old artisan - a comparison which
lends both the town and the worker a dignity they rarely find in liter-
ature. Brecht's ways of celebrating the working class are subtle. The
workers should be allowed to enter into all the sophistications and tradi-
tions hitherto reserved for the cultivated classes. Being the second term
of a comparison is one of the least obvious of those enjoyments.
(vm) THE MUSIC
Dessau's music88 begins with an overture introducing a motif also used

to underline central points of the play. sometimes even as an inter-
jection in spoken dialogue. Another motif from the gods' trio deploring
men's lack of faith emphasises points where the conflict of moral de-
mands with reality is acute. The 'Song of Green Cheese' is treated as a
parody of an operetta number. and in the Berliner Ensemble Ekkehard
Schall built his performance of it on this, making the falsity of the
optimism apparent and bringing together the unmasking of cheap art
and the unmasking of religious hopes. Multiple dissonances in the accom-
paniment to the words 'Sankt Nimmerleinstag' ('When the moon is green
cheese') symbolise pain at unrealised hopes. The 'Song of the Eighth
Elephant' uses jazz techniques and ends with sixteen bars for percussion
ad lib. and a jazz parody: the 'hot' music corresponds to the over-
heated demands of the capitalist system. here represented by Sun, on the
workers. There are two versions of the close: in one the text is spoken
but given a dissonant musical accompaniment; in the other the gods' final
words are set to the melody of the 'Song of the Smoke' and thus associ-
ated with the nihilism of the parasites early in the play; but the instru-
mentation (with harps and Glockenspiel) is given a touch of saccharine -
the fine words of the gods are illusory and deceptive. Similarly the trio in
which the gods tell Wang to have more faith parodies operatic parlando,
and Dessau suggests accompaniment by a musical box to show the
mechanical and inhumane nature of the text.
Dessau set the short lyrical reflections in the text to music and de-
manded that they should be strongly distinguished from the spoken text;
but the music generally consists of interjections and the text is still
spoken. Texts dealing with love are given Chinese atmosphere; those of
accusing content a hard percussive tone.
7 The Caucasian Chalk Circle
This reworking of the traditional Chalk Circle theme was written in
March to June 1944 in Santa Monica, California, with a New York pro-
duction in mind: the actress Luise Rainer had been instrumental in
getting Brecht a contract with a Broadway theatre. Alterations were made
in July and August, the prologue was recast in September. The first per-
formance was however not until 1948, when a student production took
place in Northfield, Minnesota; the first professional performance was
on 7 October 1954, when Brecht, assisted by Manfred Wekwerth, put it
on in the Berliner Ensemble. Angelika Hurwicz played Grusha, Ernst
Busch the Singer and Azdak, Helene Weigel the Governor's Wife. Exported
to Paris in 1955, London in 1956, and Moscow in 1957, this production
played a major part in establishing Brecht's reputation abroad. Both
Hanns Eisler and Paul Dessau have written music for the play; Dessau's
(1953-4) is that used by the Berliner Ensemble. This is the most-per-
formed Brecht play in Great Britain (443 productions up to October
1976).1
(1) THE PLOT
The 1954 production being the last that Brecht completed of any play,
our summary gives prominence to the scenic effects, as Brecht's last
word. 2
1. The Struggle for the Valley. In the ruins of a village in the Caucasus,
immediately after the Second World War, the members of two colchos
villages, a fruit-growing and a goat-breeding collective, sit smoking and
drinking wine: women, old men, soldiers. The grouping and attitudes
show that their argument is a friendly one. An expert from the capital
is in attendance. Members of the fruit-growing colchos have worked out
a plan for irrigating the valley for their purposes; as the plan lies on
the ground, one of the goat-breeders- they held the valley before the
war- is impressed by it, others are sceptical or angry. But soon they are
convinced that the fruit-growers have a better use for their valley than
The Caucasian Chalk Circle. 141
they themselves have; it is to be assumed that they are willing to stay
further east, where they were evacuated to on Hitler's advance. To cele-
brate the agreement, the fruit-growers announce a theatrical perform-
ance: an old story from the Chinese. A celebrated singer has been engaged
to be compere and is ready, book in hand and glasses on nose. He has
three assistants, and almost every member of the collective has some
part in the play he will narrate. After a meal they start:
2. The Noble Child. The singers describe the lavish court of the Gov-
ernor of a city in Grusinia. This ruler and his retinue appear on their
way to church and are delayed by a crowd of petitioners, showing how
many people are reduced to misery under this regime. They block the
narrow gateway, fighting amongst themselves for the best place. A few
coins and many strokes of the whip are distributed to .them. The Adju-
tant is behind the Governor's wife, and a very tall male nurse holds the
Governor's son, Michel (Michael in the English). a baby, well up and in
view. Two doctors are constantly in attendance on the child. The Fat Prince
Kazbeki, a conspirator, hypocritically greets Governor Abashvili and his
wife. His small nephew keeps behind him but turns an attentive ear to
the ambiguous conversation. The lazy Governor refuses to listen to talk
of the current Persian war going badly. The court enters the church in
procession.
Grusche (in translation Grusha), a kitchen maid, hurrying across the
courtyard with a goose for the Easter feast, is stopped by an acquaintance
of hers, Simon Chachava, the soldier on duty, who teases her; she is too
simple to recognise the meaning between his lines.
On the return from the Church the Adjutant in vain tries to get the
Governor to receive the latest report on the Persian war; the Governor
has eyes only for his peevish wife, who complains that his new building
is done with Michael in mind, not her. The Governor has suspicions of
the Fat Prince but does not follow them up. He goes in to eat, leaving
two Ironshirts (armoured cavalry, but we never see them mounted) on
guard. The Adjutant receives some architects, but the guards refuse to
let him into the palace without a struggle, and instead of joining the
Governor the architects think that if the Fat Prince's conspiracy is
starting to act they should get out of the way.
The fall of the Governor is told in a mime sequence commented on by
the Singer: the Governor is pulled on on a great rope by two heavily
armed soldiers, despite his attempts to hold fast to the palace gate;
he falls and has a spear thrust at his back; he is pulleci across the stage,
still looking back at what he possessed: his last visible attitude suggests
a hanged man.
Attention is turned to the chaos among the lesser folk. The shocked
servants watch a fight between the doctors, who both claim it is their
day off because neither wants to stay with the Governor's son; one of
them has already packed his bag. Grusha says a comet of ill omen has
been seen. Other servants say the Persian war is lost, all the princes are in
revolt, the Grand Duke has fled and all his governors are to be hanged,
but the poor have nothing to fear. Simon is loyal and is to be among
the guard of the Governor's wife, Natella Abashvili, who is going to flee.
Grusha too is in a hurry, she must help to pack the lady's belongings. But
they take time for a ceremonious betrothal - it becomes apparent that
Grusha has noticed him before, after all; they keep a formal distance
of two yards between them and Grusha ends their talk with a song
describing how faithfully she intends to wait while he is away at the war.
The Adjutant orders Simon off. The servants come, busily preparing
the Governor's wife's luggage; the lady herself casually sits on the back
of a crouching maid to give orders. The servants show an increasingly
rebellious mood, standing up straighter than usual and even contradict-
ing their mistress. The Adjutant presses her to hurry, but she cannot
separate herself from any of her rich clothes and acts coquettishly, used
to having plenty of time and all her whims attended to. Only the sight
of the city, off, burning brings her to her senses, and she flees leaving
everything. The nurse - a woman this time- whom she had sent to fetch
something returns and realises her mistress has left Michael. She gives the
child to Grusha to hold 'for a moment', but she has no intention of re-
turning. Other servants stand around close by and watch while Grusha
with her stupid conscientiousness has the Governor's heir planted on her.
The cook tries to persuade Grusha to leave Michael and flee; reluctantly
Grusha puts the baby down, covers him, and goes to get her things, ready
to go off to her brother's in the mountains.
The Fat Prince, elegant fan in one hand, sabre in the other, appears
with Ironshirts, one of whom has the Governor's head on a lance; it is
nailed to the gate. The Fat Prince orders Grusinia to be searched for
the Governor's child: reward 1000 piastres.
As they leave, Grusha reappears with her bundle. She has heard the
order. She is running off when she thinks of the child and stops. The
scene is mimed and commented on by the Singer from this point; Grusha's
face expresses horror at what she is doing, never goodness. She seems
to hear the child telling her that one who refuses help to fellow-human
will never rest content again. She stays near the child. Night falls. She
gets a lamp and some milk which she warms over the lamp, hastily, as if
she must be off. But she stays, and she covers the child better. Finally
she sighs, picks up child and bundle and sneaks furtively off.
3. The Flight into the Northern Mountains. Grusha walks through a

changing landscape, carrying the blanket she will need later when it be-
comes cold. A peasant's hut appears, the first stage and first difficulty of
The Caucasian Chalk Circle 143
the journey. Grusha needs milk, and her surprise at the price named sends
one hand to her purse and the other to her ear. It is not the peasant's
fault: in the war situation he must sell what little he can sell dearly.
She tries to deceive the child by giving it her dry breast, looking daggers
at the hut meanwhile; but she has to give in and buy milk. Showing the
first signs of tiredness, she goes on.
(In a scene cut in performance, Grusha pretends to be a rich lady in
order to be able to share a room at a caravanserai with two ladies who
are fleeing; but her skill at making the best of a poor room, and her
chapped hands, give her away as a member of the lower orders and thus
a potential thief, and she has to leave precipitately. She is followed by
two Ironshirts. The one in charge, the corporal, has sold their horses, so
the trooper is limping, and the corporal complains of his lack of devotion
to duty.)
Grusha, having no nappies, feels it is time to find a home for Michael
and turn back to the town to await Simon's return. Seeing a peasant
woman carrying big milk-jugs into a farmhouse, she decides that is the
place, lays the child at the door, knocks, and- conscientious to the last-
hides behind a tree to see what happens. The peasant woman is willing
to take the child in, despite her husband's ill-temper. Grusha sets off
happily but also sadly back to the town.
She runs into the two Ironshirts who are looking for the child, and
her horrified gesture gives her away. When they question her about a
noble child she breaks loose and runs to the cottage. She tries to get the
woman to hide the child or say with some conviction that it is hers. But
when the Ironshirts catch up, the woman gives the game away. The
corporal gets the trooper to take the woman outside while he examines
the child. Grusha seizes a log of wood and hits him over the head with
it as he bends over. Climbing over his stunned form, she escapes through
the window with Michael - but without her bundle.
Having cost her so much, the child is now dear to her. She removes
its fine linen and wraps it in her blanket. A stunted tree shows the
nearness of the mountains. A wind rises and Grusha comes to a half-
collapsed bridge over a glacier. Merchants are trying to recover a fallen
rope to make it safer, but with the Ironshirts following her Grusha can-
not wait: she would rather risk the two thousand-foot drop. Just as she
has got over the bridge the corporal, his head bandaged, wearing a fur
jacket, reaches it and it collapses. Grusha goes on through the snow.
4. In the Northern Mountains. Whilst the musicians narrate Grusha's

feelings about the welcome she hopes for from her brother, she goes on
in increasing exhaustion and fever. Finally a stableman has to lead her
into her brother's house. Brother and sister-in-law, eating from a common
dish, are not pleasantly surprised; the pious sister-in-law immediately
wants to know whether Grusha's fever is catching and how she came by
a child, and the brother is unable to assert his kinder feelings- he mar-
ried for money, is ashamed of his wife and subservient to her. He claims
the child is Grusha's and she has a husband with a farm who is at present
away at the war. Grusha is accommodated in a scullery until spring. She
makes herself useful by weaving at a large loom and sings to Michael,
who remains wrapped up: it is cold in the room (and Michael has to
grow rather fast without the audience noticing).
Grusha's brother comes and, standing behind her- he cannot look her
in the face - makes it clear to her that the thaw is coming and he - or
rather his wife - wants Grusha out of the house before her pursuers are
able to arrive and before gossip about an unmarried mother starts. He
has a solution: he has found a woman who, for a fee, will let Grusha
marry her dying son Jussup (in English, Yussup) and so become a widow
with papers to prove it.
So they go to the dying peasant. Grusha's prospective mother-in-law
is in a hurry to get the ceremony over before her son dies, but bargains
for a bigger fee in respect of the shame of taking an illegitimate child
into the house. She tells Grusha to hide the child when the monk is
fetched to perform the ceremony. The monk has spread the word, and
the neighbours crowd in, to the mother-in-law's annoyance. As Grusha
says her 'yes' she looks at Michael, for whom she is doing it. The monk
wants to administer Extreme Unction, but the mother-in-law finds this
too expensive. The bed-curtains are drawn to show the nearness of
death, and Grusha's brother pays and leaves. In the living-room the
wedding/funeral guests mill about, pray and joke, and are introduced to
Grusha. In the bedroom the mother-in-law and Grusha break cake into
small pieces. The monk makes an obscene speech. Musicians arrive, one of
them with a gigantic trumpet: they too want to make money out of the
wedding. An old woman stuffs on a large piece of cake, a drunkard has
to be thrown out. To cover the embarrassed pause guests start talking
of the latest news: the return of the Grand Duke. and peace in the land.
Grusha smiles as she thinks of Simon's return. But news of peace also
brings the dying bridegroom to his feet: he has only been shamming to
evade military service. Haggard in his white nightshirt, he rises like a
ghost. Grusha drops the tray of cakes she was about to hand round.
Stuffing last morsels of cake into their mouths, the guests flee; the last
to go are the monk and a couple of old ladies. who attempt an exor-
cism in vain.
A series of tableaux show Grusha's married life. She spends much
time with Michael and gives him simple tasks - her mode of education.
Yussup calls Grusha to scrub his back as he sits in the bathtub. Her
sleeveless dress excites him: he complains that, though she must have
seen a naked man before, she refuses herself to him. Grusha washes
clothes in the stream and watches the local children, including Michael,
playing Heads-off, a game in which the death of the Governor is re-
enacted (and the audience prepared for the next act, which starts again
from that event). Simon reappears, in a shabby uniform and with a
saddle but no horse, on the other side of the stream. They shout happy
greetings across it, but Grusha is unable to shout the explanation for
her apparent faithlessness across the stream, and Simon does not think
it worth going to the bridge to hear a set of excuses. As he turns away
the Ironshirts finally catch up with her: the children have gone off play-
ing, and now Michael reappears led by a trooper with an official order
to take him to the city for investigation of the suspicion that he is the
child of the late Governor. Grusha says he is her child, thus putting the
seal on Simon's alienation. Michael is led away, Grusha follows to try
and save the child for herself.
5. The Story of the Judge. The judge of Grusha's case is to be Azdak,

and the Singer introduces his story. On the day of the revolt Azdak, a
village clerk (his hut is strewn with paper and pens) with a demanding
palate (a hare hangs prominently in the foreground), finds a fugitive in
the woods, a man whose face and hands show he is used to prosperity.
When Azdak gives him cheese the careless way he eats it also betrays
that he is not used to defending every crumb he can get. He offers
150,000 piastres for a night's lodging. Azdak is about to refuse when the
village policeman Schauwa (Shauva in translation) comes to make enquir-
ies about a stolen hare. Superior to Azdak in the disciplinary structure,
and sure Azdak is the offender, he is yet overawed by the intellectual
superiority which allows Azdak casually to pull the wool over his eyes.
He leaves. How could Azdak turn anyone in to such a policeman?
But when Azdak discovers the fugitive was the arch-criminal, the
Grand Duke, he gives himself up to Shauva, has himself bound and taken
into Nukha on a charge of abetting his escape; for he is under the
impression that the Princes' revolt is a workers' revolution. At the court
they find the Ironshirts swaggering and drinking and the judge hanged.
Azdak garrulously describes the revolution in Persia forty years before,
when the peasants and workers took over because there had been too
long a war and no justice. When he has shown enough delight in the
revolution the Ironshirts move in: there was indeed a revolt of the
weavers in the town, and they strung up the judge, but Prince Kazbeki
has paid the Ironshirts to suppress them (and a carpet lying around shows
that they looted as well). Azdak is depressed, and the Ironshirts pretend
to be about to hang him but suddenly stop and burst into laughter, in
which Azdak hysterically joins. The merriment is interrupted by the Fat
Prince, who comes with his nephew. The nephew is to be the new judge,
but the Fat Prince is not sure enough of his power to simply impose him
on his executive, so suggests the Ironshirts shoold elect the judge. Had
the Grand Duke been caught the Fat Prince would have been more secure:
thanks to the clerk Azdak, the Ironshirts hold some temporary power.
He suggests testing the nephew's aptitude for the job: he himself will
act the part of a defendant. Shauva meanwhile gets hold of some wine.
The nephew takes the seat of judgment and Azdak imitates the Grand
Duke- accused of losing the war but blaming the Princes for the cor-
ruption and slackness which led to defeat. The nephew is no match for
his arguments, which culminate in the proof that Grusinia may have
lost the war, but the profiteer Princes have not. So the Ironshirts physic-
ally remove the nephew from the judgment seat and install the unwilling
Azdak on it. The Fat Prince picks up his nephew- but they are only
momentarily on the ground, symbolically as well as physically. The
soldiers dress Azdak in the judge's robe and carry him off in the ham-
mock-like chair, introducing his peripatetic administration of justice seen
in the following scenes.
Azdak's ragged clothing remains visible under the robe throughout.
He receives bribes openly at the beginning of his cases, which he gener-
ally takes two at a time whilst nonchalantly peeling apples and drinking.
He uses inattention as the cover for punishing the guilty but well-
defended for crimes they have not committed and not giving the rich
satisfaction when they have been duped or robbed. A comic procession
of witnesses, plaintiffs and defendants passes before him: the doctor
who amputated the wrong leg; the doctor's patron who had a stroke when
he heard that the doctor had treated a patient without first receiving
the fee, and is pushed on in a wheelchair; the patient who now has
rheumatism in one leg and the other leg amputated. (The doctor is
sentenced to amputate the patron's leg free should he have another
stroke.) A case of rape interests him- and the Ironshirts who form his
retinue- more; they listen to the victim's well-rehearsed tale, and then
Azdak gets her to demonstrate how she walks and bends, and finds her
guilty of rape- assaulting the stableman with a dangerous weapon, her
bottom. Then he goes off with her to examine the seat of the crime. In a
further case, a landowner's cows were killed after he asked an old
peasant woman to pay the rent for a field. She is also in receipt of a
ham and a cow brought to her by St Banditus, alias the robber Irakli, who
appears in court heavily armed, claiming to be an old hermit. The land-
owners are powerless against him, and Azdak blesses the alliance of the
poor and the violent by symbolically putting the old woman on his seat
of judgment and adoring her as the personification of long-suffering
Grusinia. The landowners present are fined for atheism in that they do
not believe in the miracles of St Banditus.
But when the Grand Duke returns fear seizes Azdak. The time of dis-
order, in which a judge could perform such travesties of legality un-
observed, will be over. Back in Nukha, Azdak mends a shoe whilst the Fat
Prince's head is carried by on a lance, and regrets that the times described
in the old Song of Chaos, which he sings elegiacally, have not yet come.
He takes the law book, which so far he has only used as a cushion, to
see what punishment is in store for him and to give the impression of
being a pedantic judge. but a wine-jug stands near him too. The Gov-
ernor's wife comes; she does not like him, but she needs a judge who will
find in her favour and get Michael returned to her. Azdak, already with-
out his robe as he was about to flee, promises to do as required; and
when his noble visitor leaves, he runs for it.
6. The Chalk Circle. The parties to the case assemble in Court. Grusha
is accompanied by the cook, who is willing to swear that the child is
Grusha's, and hopes Azdak will be drunk and deliver one of his freak
judgments. Simon comes too: though still unable to understand Grusha's
marriage, he is ready to swear he is the child's father. Ironshirts get wor-
ried because Azdak is missing. One of them is the one Grusha hit over
the head, but he cannot settle the score with her without admitting that
he was pursuing the child to kill it. The Governor's wife arrives with the
Adjutant and two lawyers; they are glad most of the common people
are prevented from attending the trial by rioting going on in the town.
The lawyers have been trying to get the Grand Duke to nominate a new
judge in place of Azdak. Ironshirts drag in Azdak- who has been de-
nounced by some landowners - and Shauva, tied up, and want to hang
Azdak. The Governor's wife applauds hysterically. Azdak, cornered, reviles
the lronshirts. At this moment a rider brings a despatch containing the
nomination of the new judge: Azdak, who saved the Grand Duke's life.
Hurriedly the Ironshirts cut Azdak down. He is dressed in the the judge's
robe, orders wine to cure his shock and the law book to sit on, and takes
bribes from the lawyers, who give more when he remarks that Grusha
is attractive. He interrupts a lawyer's poetic praise of motherhood to
hear Grusha's case, which is mainly that she has done her best for the
child. The Governor's wife, prompted by the lawyer. says a few words;
but the second lawyer lets slip that not love of the child, but desire to
enter into the revenues of her late husband's estate- which is tied to the
son - is the moving force in the case. Azdak takes note of this and listens
summarily to the lies of Grusha and her witnesses. He wants to cut the
case short. Grusha says there is no wonder, he has got his money. The
cook tries to restrain her, Simon argues with Azdak and is fined for in-
decent language. and the Governor's wife supports herself on the shoulder
of her indispensable Adjutant. Grusha delivers a denunciation of Azdak.
which he listens to with increasing pleasure. fining her thirty piastres
for contempt of court. Then he interrupts the case to hear an old couple
who want a divorce and who stand back to back, but very close to each
other: they have been married forty years. Grusha has an argument with
the Governor's wife, ending when Azdak says he has reached no con-
clusion from the evidence and must proceed to the Chalk Circle test.
Michael is put in a circle drawn on the floor and the true mother will be
the one who can pull the child out of the circle. Grusha in her simplicity
is so overjoyed when she touches Michael again after so long that she
forgets to pull. As the real mother pulls Michael out of the circle she
reaches after him. Azdak decides to repeat the test; the lawyer, leafing
through his law book, objects, and Shauva is inclined to listen, but the
test takes place. This time Grusha pulls, and she is stronger than the
Governor's wife: but in order not to tear the child in two she lets go.
Azdak starts to take his robe off: he wants to get away quickly after
the verdict, which is in favour of Grusha. The Abashvili estates fall to the
city to be made a playground named after Azdak. He signs a divorce,
but it turns out to be in favour of Grusha rather than of the old couple.
Simon and Grusha are both looking at Michael rather than at each other;
when she gets her divorce Grusha kisses Azdak, but means Simon. Azdak
collects the fines from them. Simon takes Michael on his shoulders so
that they can get out of town quickly. The lawyers desert the Governor's
wife, who is not in a position to pay their fees. She leaves in the Adju-
tant's arms. The Fat Prince's head is still stuck over the gateway as the
less involved characters carry out a leisurely and joyful exit. The Singer
ends the story: Azdak disappeared, but the moral is that things should
belong to those who are good for them.
(11) FORERUNNERS
The motif of the chalk circle is ancient and widely known. 3 The quarrel
of two women before a wise judge over which is the true mother of a
child goes back to the judgment of Solomon {I Kings 3, 16-28); in the
Hui Lan Chi {'Chalk Circle') of the Chinese author Li Hsing-dao (or Li
Hsing Tao, thirteenth century), the motif of personal enrichment is
already present: the real object of the court case is the inheritance which
is bound to the child·. Hai Tang. the (socially inferior) second wife of the
rich man Ma, has borne him an heir, endangering the first wife's prim-
acy. Mrs Ma murders the husband in order to enjoy life with her lover
Tschao. accuses Hai Tang of the crime, and claims the child (and the
estate) as her own. She tries to kill Hai Tang, who escapes by chance.
A bribed judge finds in her favour, but by pure chance an appeal judge
is incorruptible and determines maternity by the chalk circle test: the
child is put in a circle, the claimants are directed to pull him out, and
the one who lets go because she does not want to hurt him is the true
mother. The child and the estate are adjudged to her, Mrs Ma punished.
In a way the story might appeal to Brecht, with its clear social bias;
dramaturgically, it has instances of self-introduction and sung inter-
polations which would interest him; 4 and that Hai Tang only by very
good luck survives and gets justice is perhaps an element in Brecht's
conception of Grusha's vicissitudes.
In 1925 Max Reinhardt put on a lyrical and fantastic adaptation of
the play by the poet Klabund {Alfred Henschke). Brecht's interest in this
version was reinforced after Klabund's death: his widow, Carola Neher,
was one of Brecht's actresses. The play was a success in London, and was
produced by Piscator in New York in 1940-1. Another precursor to be
mentioned is a celebrated German enlightenment play on parenthood,
Lessing's Nathan the Wise: as Ritchie (pp. 50f.) reminds us, looking
after the child is here set alongside the ties of blood, and Nathan, after
being established as a good foster-father, is revealed as the real father
too.
Brecht's first treatment of the theme was perhaps a parody of Klabund
-the interlude 'The Elephant Calf' in Man is Man. 5 In 1940 a short story,
Der Augsburger Kreidekreis {'The Augsburg Chalk Circle'), transfers the
theme into the world of Mother Courage and radically re-evaluates it.
In a Catholic attack on Augsburg during the Thirty Years War, a rich dyer
is killed; his wife flees, leaving their child behind. A maid Anna takes the
child to her brother's; he has married a strict and well-to-do Catholic
who would not take in a Protestant child, so Anna claims it is hers.
When no father turns up, the sister-in-law is dubious. By marrying a man
apparently at death's door Anna regularises her position; the man does
not die, but she gets used to life with him. At last the dyer's wife comes
to claim her child. Anna appeals to the judge Dollinger, famed for his
fairness. She is suspected in court of wanting the inheritance, but insists
she does not care about that, only about the child. The chalk circle test
proves she is the true mother; she keeps the child. It was of this story
that Brecht thought when the chance of writing a play for Broadway
was offered him. To it he adds the Azdak plot. The figure may owe some-
thing to Haitang's brother in Klabund, a revolutionary student who be-
comes a judge, and to the stories of a historical figure, the magistrate
Pao or Bau Dschong, best known to us as the Judge Dee stories. 6
(111) THE DEMONSTRATION PLAY
The play is hard to classify. Brecht denied that it was a parable appar-
ently because the argument of act 1 is resolved before the main action,
the Grusha and Azak plots, starts; the main action is thus not used to
help in solving any present-day problem. In early drafts, admittedly, and
in later summaries, Brecht defers the decision about the valley to the
day after the pedormance of the main action (17, 1203; Mat. K .• 16).
Walter Hinck points out a more basic consideration, that the main action
concerns a child, the opening action land; it would thus be incommen-
are to reduce the main action to a mere backing-up of the conclusions
reached in act 1. But Hinck (pp. 35f.) concludes that the first act is
thus merely accidental and dispensable. a conclusion too often reached
also by directors wanting to shorten the running time, and even by Harry
Buckwitz in the Frankfurt production of 1955.7 Omitting act 1 reduces
the play to an interesting anecdote in which an improbable happy end-
ing is wrung from a continuingly hostile historical situation, and to
exactly the kind of play Brecht objected to when he met it on the natural-
ist stage: one in which there is no criticism of the idea that social catas-
trophes happen by fate, no perspective towards a different, less alienatory
social world. Brecht says the prologue is necessary to motivate his
changes of the Chalk Circle theme; only the setting in the Soviet Union
explains the whole play (Mat. K .• 28). Grusha and Azdak work illegally
to do good in an unalterably unpromising state of affairs. The peasants
of act 1 are able to do good, by considering in a spirit of amity and
fairness the use of their valley. without fear of bad laws. Where the social
situation is right. people can be helpful to each other without bringing
trouble on themselves - and only then. The two problems - valley and
child- are in some ways analogous, in others not; and whilst the finding
is the same. that things should and can be entrusted to those who make
the most of them and care for them best. the social worlds in which the
verdict is reached are crassly contrasted. (The finding was applied by
Brecht to the eastern areas of Germany arbitrarily transferred to Poland
at the end of the war. Aj .• 2, 749: 3.8.45; but that he was thinking of
them in writing the play8 is a chronological impossibility.)
The various elements (commune plot, Grusha plot, Azdak plot) use
widely differing tones and conventions. Act 1 is apparently set in a
particular place and time. but cannot really claim such closeness to real-
ity. The time of the other acts is left vague, and for all it means to the
Western audience, the place (Nukha, a city of Soviet Azerbaijan some
200 km east of Tiflis) might just as well be vague too. Brecht uses the
unfamiliar name 'Grusinia' for Georgia; Georgian names were substituted
at a late stage for Russian ones. 9 The Azdak plot is very discursive. The
Grusha plot, on the other hand, despite (or because of) its episodic struc-
ture is firmly based on traditional dramatic tension, and the whole Azdak
plot, interpolated by a bold stroke of disregard of dramatic chronology
exactly at the point where we are most tense about the fate of Michael.
is a retarding element of the first water. The stories of Grusha and of
Azdak are set off by the same event, the Easter rising (2065; 61; 5), but
Brecht chooses to start them separately and only bring them together
with the event which ends them both.
Critical controversy rages around all these breaks. Peter Leiser finds
the question of a mother for a child qualitatively so different from the
question of use of a tract of land that he feels Brecht has lost track of
his criteria of proportion. 10 Fuegi (p. 145) on the other hand makes out
a case for act 1 as 'a kind of decompression chamber as we step from
the here and now into the never-never': contemporary farmers lead us
carefully into the stylised presentation of the ancient tale.
According to Brecht the Grusha and Azdak plots show to the colchos
spectators 'a particular kind of wisdom, an attitude which may be ex-
emplary in the case of their topical dispute'. thus giving a background
demonstration of the practicability of this kind of wisdom and some idea
of its historical origins (17, 1205; Mat. K., 18). Grusha and Azdak are
pioneers .of what will in the fulness of time become habitual attitudes.
The communes have already in act 1 shown what can be done by
reason. The argument about the valley is doomed, by any conventional
knowledge about human behaviour, to end in deadlock and to have
to be decided by higher authority or by force. But Brecht shows it being
amicably settled, thanks to the secure social situation in which the goat-
keepers have an alternative tract of land and can count on the same
state support wherever they are. To envisage such a situation is an act,
if not of faith, at any rate of optimism. The dramaturgical equivalent of
a mood of optimism is a comedie, in the sense of a non-tragic play which
may have more or fewer overt comic elements.
In line with the attitude thus imposed by the optimistic perspective,
the pioneers of modern attitudes are made the protagonists of plots in
which, despite the barbarous conditions of their past era, a happy ending
can be salvaged. Grusha enters of her free will into a situation which
by normal ideas of human nature is hopeless. A defenceless girl moving
across country in time of war and rebellion, clutching a child with a price
on his head- it is a hopeless endeavour. When she allows herself to be
married off it seems to put an end to hopes of a happy ending to her
love for Simon. A villager hurrying to accuse himself of crimes against
the people, only to find that the people is no more in power than it ever
was - the wonder is that he does not end on the gallows.
But the Soviet citizens of the communes are to be entertained, not
saddened, by the fate of their ancestors. Mayer (p. 243) describes the
conception of the Grusha and Azdak plots as 'fairy-tale material'; indeed
the saving of a happy ending from such vicissitudes is typical of fairy-
tale- and also of sensational 'cliff-hanger' films, comic strips and stage
comedy. So is the relationship of character and plot: 'the poor simple
person despised by the rich proves helpful and resourceful and overcomes
all obstacles to win the prize in the end.' 11 Brecht goes deeper than most
such literature. But he also includes more overtly comic elements. Azdak
is a comedy figure of vitality and cunning; his virtuoso performances of
judging two cases at once are given a serious function in the plot when
he bungles a divorce and so frees Grusha to marry Simon. The Ironshirts
who pursue Grusha, cavalry on foot, trudging against the stage turntable,
are figures of fun, but their pursuit forces Grusha to retain the baby and
thus keeps the plot moving. The scene of Grusha's marriage, for which
the monk with sarcastic glee demands 'a hushed Wedding March or a gay
Funeral Dance' (2055; 52; 4), is ended by the resurrection of the bride-
groom, resulting in the comic exodus of the wedding guests but an un-
welcome tum in Grusha's fortunes. The comic may be the final and true
perspective on human life, but has to assert itself against the decidedly
tragic: Brecht's optimism is not Panglossian. In act 1 the tragic is
represented by the destruction in the war against fascism, in the main
actions by the oppression and insecurity inherent in the feudal system;
in each case it is overcome but not negated. A Hegelian synthesis, com-
bining its elements yet not superseding them, is a possible analogy; closer
is perhaps the thought of Brecht's favourite Mo Tzu on the two aspects
of the universe- yang the masculine, the sunny side, the active; yin the
converse; both intertwined, each a valid and necessary part of a universe
in which the higher element and the guarantee of the meaningfulness
of the whole is however represented by yang. Such oriental serenity
on Brecht's part has led to a comparison with Shakespeare's last
plays. 12
(IV) NARRATION
The Singer, a 'summing up and extension' 18 of all Brecht's narrative de-

vices - placards, choruses, apostrophes to audience, scene titles, intro-
ductory verses- has affinities to the Aeschylean chorus. These appear
particularly in his sententious commentaries: 'Oh blindness of the great!
They walk like gods .. .' (2015; 15; 2}. Here he stands above time and
place and delivers general truths on the possibilities of change in human
affairs. But from such a commentary he can move straight into issuing
orders to the actors: 'walk even now with head up' (2015; 16}. These
orders are obeyed - in the Berliner Ensemble, the Governor responds
marionette-like to the Singer's words. Similarly he says what Grusha is to
do: 'Run, kind heart! The killers are coming!' (2037; 36; 3). So he exer-
cises a direct control. Being in charge of the book he is also responsible
for the division of the story into two chronologically concurrent halves
in defiance of dramatic convention.14 He selects parts of the story to tell,
aided by slips of paper he has placed in the book (2008; not in the trans-
lation; 2). He passes over long periods of time, both between and within
the acts, with a few words. In fact he is the sovereign narrator of a story,
and the scenes of the Grusha plot in particular merely body forth his
conceptions. 15 He stands between the action and the public. Brecht placed
him with his musicians in front of and in a stage-side box, a visual in-
dicator of their function. The Singer asserts himself as the real reality
we are to hold on to, and relativises the dramatic reality- a necessary
counterpoise to the emotional tendencies of the Grusha plot. He is al-
ways there, and sometimes when he opens his mouth we are reminded
that the action is in the past, and supplied with hints as to how to
think about it, which modify our emotional response. He also plays
directly with the audience, raising political hopes- 'Oh, Wheel of For-
tune! Hope of the people!' only to dash them: 'When the houses of the
great collapse I Many little people are slain' {2015; 15f.; 2).
The most daring aspect of the Singer's work is however that he is
made to speak the thoughts of Grusha when she would otherwise have to
remain silent or engage in monologue: the equivalent of voice-over
narration in film, this is a specifically epic procedure. 16 While the Singer
holds the stage aurally, Grusha (and at the end of act 5 Simon) mimes
the emotions concerned. Distancing of the words is sufficient for Brecht,
the emotions need not be underplayed too. These songs do not interrupt
the action in the way that songs generally do in Brecht, but transfer it
temporarily from the social to the psychological level, encouraging the
spectator to assess character for its own sake as well as in its social
context. In a sense Brecht thus turns the wheel full circle: just where
he insists most strongly on the privileged position of the Singer-narrator,
emphasises the epic element and thus (theoretically) the primacy of plot
over character- the greatest degree of opposition to naturalist theatre, in
which character and situation often took precedence over plot - he
smuggles back the drama of character, the self-revelation of the individual
figure taking priority over the forcing of the pace of the action.
The musicians supporting the Singer fulfil ad hoc functions. Some-
times they act as representatives of the audience, asking questions full
of dramatic tension: 'How will the merciful escape the merciless I The
bloodhounds, the trappers?' {2026; 26; 3). Sometimes they supply lyrical
generalisations on the basis of Grusha's plight {2035; 34; 3)- what in
The Good Person Shen Teh had to do for herself. Once in a short in-
terlude they even take the words of Grusha {203 6; 3 5; 3); the Berliner
Ensemble played this sense before an empty road.
(v) THE SOCIAL WORLD OF THE PLAY
In Brecht the behaviour of the individual is constantly determined by the

social situation. A few characters have qualities which override this, and
so they come into conflict with society: Kattrin in Mother Courage, Shen
Teh in The Good Person and Grusha here. But around them are many
others who are mere ciphers, altering their attitudes more or less as
the wind blows them: the cook in Mother Courage is a good example,
and The Caucasian Chalk Circle is full of them. The architects who dance
attendance on the Governor are not lickspittles by nature: they need
contracts (17, 1209). The doctors who abandon Michael are concerned
to save their skins. The peasant who asks an impossible price for milk is
not a profiteer and grasping. but poor: he gently helps Grusha to pick
Michael up after their argument (17, 1209). The soldiers work for who-
ever pays them and change their attitude according to the news from
above. In act 6 they string Azdak up on a denunciation, but on receipt
of a despatch from the Grand Duke, their newly-restored master, they
are on the spot. One of them immediately raises the fainting Azdak. The
others are slower to grasp the situation: only after an embarrassing pause
does one of them remove the focus of embarrassment, the noose, smiling
at Azdak 'like a hairdresser who wants his tip' (Brecht). 17 The peasant
woman who panics and gives away Grusha and Michael to the corporal,
too, acts in a way determined by her social situation. None of them are
all bad, but they do not break out of the vicious circle. Grusha's sister-
in-law treats her coldly because she fears for her own respectability;
Grusha's brother is annoyed but can do nothing about it, and his defence
of his wife (2049; 47) expresses a bad conscience. And so it goes on.
The world in which Grusha and Azdak move is made up of people with
no impetus to change it, though very few of them benefit from it. The
possible changes in the world would have to start with the activation of
people like this, whose true interest it would be to put an end to their
exploitation by those above them. Indeed, Brecht is more interested in
showing this end _of society and where the shoe rubs it than in attacking
the exploiters directly. Socialist realist critics objected to the lack of
positive revolutionary content in Brecht.
The time of the main action is basically similar to that in Galileo:
the feudal hierarchy is in decline. The princes fish in troubled waters, using
the war in which the Grand Duke is engaged to extend their power; the
Governor by his effeteness and ineffectuality, shown by his lack of interest
in despatches from the front, plays into their hands. The feudal powers
are served by the judiciary and the armed forces, and logically reinforced
by the Church. Lawyers, doctors, and architects are theoretically inde-
pendent, but in practice only able to make money out of the feudalists,
who alone have money. No beginnings of mercantilism are to be seen
among this embryonic middle class.
The concomitant of feudalism, serfdom, is underplayed. Though in
act 1 one of the older participants has been a serf, in the body of the
play people behave like free peasants and townspeople, whose suffering
at the hands of the nobility takes the form of taxation and the caprici-
ous exercise of violence by the powerful. The Governor and his wife
think only of property;' 8 she in particular has no attitudes that are speci-
fically feudal rather than capitalistic. The most sensitive point of property
is possession of a child (here Michael), determined by begetting and bear-
ing: 'the ultimate locus of private property is in the private parts'/ 9
an aspect of capitalism that had attracted Brecht's satirical attention
in the sonnet On Kant's Definition of Marriage ... (9, 609; B. Poems,
312). The peasants vary from rich to poor, and they marry into property
in the time-honoured way; Grusha's brother does it here in Grusinia just
like his forerunner in Swabia. An urban artisanate, the carpet-weavers,
is kept off stage; it apparently attempts from time to time to assert
itself in revolts, -but has never grown strong enough to hold its own
for long against the feudalists. The servants, as seen mainly in act 2,
have a rudimentary solidarity in that they help each other when the
quarrels of the mighty involve the powerless too. They are also seen, in
Brecht's production, stealing in the time of chaos. 20 This is typical of
them. In the caravanserai episode of act 3, Grusha tries to pass herself
off as a fine lady. When she is found out, only one construction can-
as in the didactic piece The Exception and the Rule - be put on it: that
she is out to kill or rob. 21 No one is expected to believe that she had
honest, let alone positively good, intentions. But in fact she is rising
above class bonding and showing fellow-feeling with a member of an-
other class because he is himself, like the servants, powerless and help-
less.
Azdak, the village clerk, makes a decision like Brecht's: he espouses
the revolutionary cause out of an intellectual insight. When the revolu-
tion fails him, he finds himself, in his attempt to realise what social
justice he can, allied with the robber- who in a time of oppression has a
positive social function, helping the poor by robbing the rich. That Irakli
is also St Banditus, an old hermit, is part of the play's criticism of
Christianity. For his use of force is, as the Singer adumbrates (2084;
77; 5), the correct, primevally Christian way of loving one's neighbour.
Christ came to bring not peace, but the sword. Otherwise the flaunted
Christianity of various figures in the play, especially those Grusha meets,
is just a mask for exploitation and indifference. The peasant woman
with whom Grusha leaves Michael calls this abandonment a sin (2038;
37); the real sin has been committed, just after Sunday church, by the
Governor's wife. The same peasant woman, thinking only of her harvest
money, denounces Grusha as soon as the Ironshirts arrive, thus forcing
her to use violence to save Michael. When she comes with him to the
rotten bridge, the merchant woman can only pray and say that crossing
the bridge constitutes the sin of tempting God (2043f.; 42); Grusha has
to act alone. In the following scene Grusha's sister-in-law with the
crucifix is more concerned about gossip than about helping the child;
whilst one could not expect Brecht to miss the chance of portraying a
drunken, obscene and money-grubbing monk. None of these Christians
eases Grusha's lot; they censure her and let her down.
Yet Christianity is not only attacked. Grusha as virgin 'mother' of a
child of high birth, whose father is not her fiance, fleeing with it from
the Prince's persecution into a far country, and married to Yussup
(Joseph), has similarities to the Virgin Mary; so has the old woman,
'Mother Grusinia', who receives the gifts of St Banditus and the adora-
tion of· Azdak. Azdak breaks the laws like bread to feed the masses,
bringing a temporal rather than spiritual salvation to the needy (2086;
80; 5), is mocked by the soldiers with a robe and a burlesque crown
(2078; 72), greets his apparently certain end with 'The fear of death is
upon me' (2089; 82; 5). But he is no Messiah. Brecht uses parts of the
story of Jesus for Michael too- hailed by Grusha in the song at the end
of scene 3 with an echo of Isaiah, thrice denied by her on Simon's re-
turn. Brecht finds biblical references and echoes suitable for scenes set
in the feudal past, where they serve to underline the real, egalitarian
message of Christ against its perversion by the hypocritical oppressors.
Thus Christianity is incorporated into the humane tradition Brecht would
like to formulate. But biblical echoes are lacking in act 1: Brecht does
not want to risk any hint that such a debased form of organised religion
might be allowed to influence modem life.
(vi) GRUSHA's PRODUCTIVITY
'Terrible is the temptation to do good!', the Singer tells us (2025; 25; 2).
As Grusha takes the child, music expresses the threat of retribution for
this theft. The Singer's paradox draws our attention to the state of an
age in which the ageless quality of goodness (the abstract quality is
invoked in the German text) is something to be resisted. But the theme
of goodness- as general charity, and as doing one's best for a single
child - has been treated in The Good Person, and Brecht does not just
repeat himself. The particular twist in this play is that Grusha takes on a
strange child out of joy at her betrothal to Simon. The temptation to
do good is an almost sexual one: Verfuhrung, seduction. 22 'I took him be-
cause on that Easter Sunday I got engaged to you. And so it is a child of
love', she tells Simon at the end (2105; 96; 6). And the child leads her
into marriage to another, thus very nearly preventing the engagement to
Simon from turning into marriage. Simon is invented by Brecht independ-
ently of the concept of Grusha's child not being her own, and his func-
tion is to complicate the plot.
But at the same time Simon represents the promise of a fulfilment. In
Mother Courage, Kattrin was not only prevented from taking on orphan
children by the colder attitude of her mother, but also unable to get
The Caucasian Chalk Circle 15 7
herself a man. Grusha gets at one stroke the promise of a man, and the
reality of a child. The promise is redeemed: despite her marriage to an-
other, Simon declares himself willing to perjure himself for her (like
Shen Teh for Wang). and in the comedy ending she is freed to marry
him.
When Grusha actually takes on the child, under the influence of her
personal joy, it is for quite direct and universal reasons. Her sensitivity
is expressed in the magnificent narration (2024; 24; 2) of what she thinks
she hears the child saying. and it is a threat: by closing one's ear to a cry
for help one cuts oneself off from the simple contentment of existence
for ever. She tries to resist the message, but in vain. In the eyes of the
world she may be concerning herself with dangerous things that are
none of her business, she may be infringing the sacred rule that charity
begins at home; but humanitarian impulses overcome her. (The hesitation
before she takes the child has been said to be borrowed from the Chaplin
film The Kid 23). In her own view she is merely keeping the peace with
herself. She sighs when she lifts up the child, for she knows she is taking
responsibility for a hunted boy with a price on his head, something which
must bring her anxiety and perhaps danger.
She wants at first only to get Michael out of danger. She is quite ready
to leave him with the peasant couple once she has realised it is imprac-
ticable for her to take him further without nappies or supplies. At this
point she is so keen to get the child safely billeted and to take up the
threads of her own life that she has changed her mind about going to
her brother's and wants to return to Nukha to await Simon. So she has
not thought about how to bring Michael up. Then comes the realisation
that the Ironshirts are searching for the child in exactly the direction
where she has left him, and the turning-point of the plot when in order
to save him she has to hit the Corporal over the head. After this, she
as well as Michael is hunted, both are in the same boat (2043 'Mitgegan-
gen, mitgehangen'; cf. 42 'Live together, die together'). Grusha and the
peasant woman have each done exactly what they wanted not to when
they see Ironshirts. The woman betrays the child though she wanted to
keep it; Grusha gives herself away and has to act desperately to keep
the child, though she wanted to lose it. The apparently better situation
for the child was really almost fatally catastrophic.
Now, having done much for Michael already, she makes him hers. She
dresses him in her blanket instead of his fine linen and re-baptises him
(2041; 40). Almost the first thing she said about him was: 'He hasn't
got the plague. He looks at you like a human being' (2023; 23; 2). Now,
from a sort of taboo object dangerous for the lower orders to touch,
he is to be transformed into a true human being. The baptism is to
signify conversion to positive (rather than hypocritical) Christianity. The
song at the end of act 3 is about Michael (2044, 'auf dich'; missed in
the translation). It has a social awareness which critics have paid too
little attention to. She sets out consciously to divert Michael from the
ways laid for him by heredity. His thief-father wanted to lay out a new
wing to the palace, pulling down the houses of the poor to do so - all
for Michael (2009, 2013; 11, 14; 1). His whore-mother is never seen
without the Adjutant. Both have been a scourge to the poor, tiger and
snake. But Michael is to feed children and foals. In act 4 his education
is proceeding. Bent at the loom, Grusha sings a song with useful lessons
about not making oneself too obvious, which she applies to their present
situation as well as to war (2048; 46). After her marriage he is seen
trying his hand at mending a straw mat (2058; 55): work-orientated
play. Her defence before Azdak is based on her having brought him up
'to be friendly with everyone' and 'to work as well as he could' (2096;
88; 6), and she wants to teach him more words (2103; 95). Her unspoken
reaction to Azdak's tempting offer that if she lets the child go to its
real mother it will be rich completes the picture: 'He who wears the
shoes of gold I Tramples on the weak and old .. .' (2102; 93)- and what
is more, being so evil is too great a strain for a man, and it would be
better for him to fear hunger than to fear the revenge of the hungry.
So Grusha develops ideas on education which are typical of Brecht in
their double basis: class-consciousness and humanitarianism. As in The
Good Person the exploiting class is as alienated as the exploited, and
suffers from the need to be harsh, so here. As it was not Shui Ta's fault
that he was so hard, so here Grusha actually takes it on herself to save a
potential exploiter from the consequences of birth into the ruling class-
by making him a worker, a useful member of society. 24 In scene 6, finally,
her attack on Azdak shows awareness of his apparent role as the judicial
defender of private property and exploitation (2100; 92).
The other, more obvious, side of Grusha is her naivety. At the be-
ginning, the cook tells her she is none of the brightest (2023; 23; 2).
Her kindness lacks anything to moderate it. She calls herself a sucker
(2051, 'die Dumme', Brecht's translation of 'sucker' as explained 17,
1206 and Mat. K., 19; cf. 48 'the fool'; 4). But really she is closer to
Kattrin, who becomes self-sacrificingly good only after a series of catas-
trophic alienations, than to the unstoppable existential goodness of Shen
Teh. Like Mother Courage's daughter she is a tireless worker, the one
sent for the extra goose, a strong and willing girl- Brecht cast Angelika
Hurwicz in both parts, solid and down-to-earth. her physique and face
counteracting any desire to see her as a little-girl-lost. Grusha is the
timeless, practical, four-square peasant, but with some of the monomania
afflicting Bruegel's Dulle Griet, the madwoman rushing open-mouthed
through a nightmare world on a mission she alone understands. 25
At the beginning, at least, she may be helpless and silly, but she has
the stamina and obstinacy she will need for her task. Grusha was pure
and goody-goody only in the first version written for Luise Rainer;
immediately after sending the script off to her Brecht was discontented
and rewrote the part completely (A;., 2, 671: 8.8.44; Mat. K., 32£.). In
rehearsal, he contemplated hinting that she stole on her journey with
Michael in order to feed the two of them (Mat. K., 72f.). In fulfilling her
function vis-a-vis Michael, Grusha develops herself, 'changes herself, with
sacrifices and through sacrifices, into a mother for the child' (Mat. K.,
23), from a naive girl into a thinking woman.
She also undergoes the strangest twists and turns of the plot, as when
the end of the war transforms her from a virgin widow with an adopted
son and a lover far away, into an unwilling wife who must fear the re-
turn of her lover and cannot account to him or to her husband for the
child. A final irony in the last scene is that, having looked after Michael
when the Governor's wife could not be bothered with him, she wants
nothing more badly than to be allowed to go on wearing herself out and
involving herself in expense for it! Here she and her poor friends are con-
trasted in the stage grouping with the Governor's wife and lawyers: the
productive against the parasites of society. 26 In the meantime she has
survived a series of dangers so crassly presented as to verge on the
comic. The way she hits the bending corporal is certainly funny; her
crossing of a bridge which collapses immediately afterwards takes one
into the world of Victorian melodrama. With each of these perils she adds
to the self-sacrifice which is implicit in taking the child on in the first
place. The more pressures are put on her, the more her refusal to let
society alienate her stands out. What began as a quick rescue under-
taken to salve her conscience turns gradually into a total commit-
ment.
Finally Azdak's freak judgment gives her peculiar productive talent as
a mother free rein; it is blessed by society, institutionalised. At last she
can be herself without fighting everyone else. The ending emphasises that
men are made what they are by social life, not by biology. For all prac-
tical purposes Michael is Grusha's child now. This application of the
Marxian statement that social being determines consciousness has alien·
ated some believers in la voix du sang, but is surely understandable even
to them as an answer to the racial madness which is what National
Socialism made of theories of heredity.
(VII) AZDAK's PRODUCTIVITY
Perhaps Brecht's most energetic character, full of zest and quirkiness,

Galileo and Schweyk rolled into one, Azdak from the outset gives lessons
to Shauva, demonstrations to the Grand Duke. He runs of his own accord
to the centre of what he hears is a revolution, just as Mother Courage sets
off to the war, though with different intentions. He has an alert political
consciousness and the mental agility and self-confidence to use it; he is
ready to be appointed judge. His first political song (2071f.; 66f.) is
a striking example of Brecht's technique of the missing third strophe.
Because the king is carrying on a war and taxing everyone, because the
government is ruinous and the workers impoverished- for these reasons,
it says, we no longer bleed and weep, leaving bleeding to the calves
and weeping to the willows. The missing link is, in this case, in the
middle: because of war and injustice the workers have revolted and
abolished the cause of their sorrow. The omission has a poetic and an
ideological purpose. The poetic one is to force the reader to supply the
missing link - and the structure of the song, consisting of a question, two
strophes of description and the paradoxical assertion that they answer
the question, scarcely makes it easier. The ideological purpose is to con-
form to the general ambivalence of Marxian theory according to which the
dictatorship of the proletariat has indeed to be worked for, but is at the
same time a historical necessity. The alienation described classically in
the song in the image of the ragged weaver has in in itself the germ
of its downfall.
The song nearly results in a catastrophe. Azdak's celebration of the
'new age' (1069; 65) was premature. The new age arrives in the unex-
pected form of the Fat Prince (1073; 68), just as Galileo's new age turned
out to be a new age of exploitation. Azdak does not give up. Soon, to the
Ironshirts, in the presence of the Fat Prince, he expresses utter con-
tempt for the forms of law {2074f.; 69f.). He has recognised in the
soldiers fellow-proletarians; even if at this moment they are not to be
diverted from the service of their oppressors, they will not take a little
satire amiss. Here he shows the cunning in finding and spreading the
truth demanded in Five Difficulties in Writing the Truth (18, 222-39).
His performance in the role of the Grand Duke unmasks the new rulers as
no better than the old, their claims to change things for the sake of the
people as hollow. This need to show up the apparently new as really old,
mentioned in the essay, is basic in such anti-Hitler plays as Roundheads
and Peakheads and The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui. Here, the nephew
claims to represent the People- 'Volk' {2076; 71), with no more justifi-
cation than Hitler. Azdak works against this, which brands him in the
Fat Prince's eyes as a revolutionary. His second song (2087; 81) ironically
pretends to deprecate the state of chaos in which the common people
come into their own. 27 It resembles the carnival ballad in Galileo in its
Utopian expectations. As often with Brecht, order is the principle of ex-
ploitation. disorder the chance for the individual's self-realisation. This
song is already used as an instance of cunning used to broadcast truth
under a tyranny in Five Difficulties {18, 234f.); it is an adaptation of an
Egyptian lament of c. 2500 B.C. 28
Ernst Busch in the Berliner Ensemble played Azdak as a representa-
tive of the lower classes: lolling back incongruously in his red robe,
watching the emotional Governor's wife's attempts to convince him of
her right to the child with the air of an old trade-unionist listening to
the employer justifying a pay cut. 29 To him everything is reducible to a
class aspect. The Princes win their battle for profits in millions of piastres
when Grusinia loses the war. Conversely, Mother Grusinia's surprise at a
poor person being given a ham goes straight to his heart. 30 His justice is
that of a disappointed revolutionary reduced to playing the fool (17,
1206). Brecht's intention of making him a purely selfish judge (Aj., 2,
650: 8.5.44) is not realised: an ambiguity remains, Azdak is now selfish
and now altruistic (in rehearsal Brecht stressed these aspects altern-
ately). He uses his power in the interest of the poor, thus establishing an
enclave of fairness in a general atmosphere of class justice. He works
pragmatically: there being no hope of revolution, he is willing to try
and alleviate the effects of tyranny. He is the good bad judge: morally
good, professionally bad. 31 He takes bribes openly, a practice obviously to
be expected of the regular judge, which he satirises by taking it to absurd
lengths. He complains that the poor expect justice without pairnent
{2099; 91; 6). The cynical openness is intended to show up the usual
practice. 'It's good for Justice to do it in the open. The wind blows her
skirts up and you can see what's underneath' (2081; 75; 5) is not only
a reference to Ludovica. He turns the language of jurisprudence upside
down. declaring Ludovica's waggling of her hips to be rape {2083; 77;
5). Sometimes he is content to modify somewhat the workings of the
caricatured market economy: the doctor in his first case gets away with
loss of his fee, the poor patient has to drown his sorrows in a bottle
of brandy. In the case of Mother Grusinia the presence of Irakli allows a
more direct judgment in favour of the poor, and rich farmers are sen-
tenced to fines. Bribes and fines flow into Azdak's pocket; he is punctili-
ous about collecting fines for contempt of court (even from Simon at the
end). Social justice and self-interest concern him about equally. If he
loves troubled waters, he does not forget his fishing-rod. He wants to
gratify his senses, and like Galileo's scientific urge, his 'Jove of justice is
bound up with sensuality. The set for his hut, with hung hare, onions and
garlic as well as the demonstratively displayed handiwork of the scribe,
says as much. Beauty for him is often connected with food; he cannot
do without wine. 'With me, everything goes on food and drink' (2100;
91; 6). The theme centres on Azdak but is not confined to him: intelli-
gent appreciation of food is a motif of act 1, whose goat-and-fruit-
tree motif is repeated in act 3 where the Old Man mentions his goats
(2027; 27) and the innkeeper his cherry and peach trees {2028f.; 28).
Similarly Azdak's revaluation of the concept of justice is summed up by
the girl tractor driver: 'The laws will have to be re-examined in any case
to see whether they are still valid' (2003; 5), but only Azdak actually
undertakes the examination.
If Grusha was subject to the seduction of goodness, he can be seduced
by a question. He sees himself as an intellectual. a logician, not as good-
hearted (2067; 63; 5). His anomalous activities culminate in act 6-
the climax of Brecht's whole oeuvre, with its riches of argument and
paradox, and a comic perversion of the court scene. In Hauptmann's Der
Biberpelz, a comedy which was among the early productions of the Ber-
liner Ensemble, the magistrate von Wehrhahn is so blinkered by political
prejudice that the rascally protagonist, Mother Wolffen, gets away with
her blatant theft. Azdak distorts the law in a nicer way. Even the restora-
tion of the Grand Duke cannot remove him from his place, and threats
of what will happen if he gives judgment against the Governor's wife
do not make him forget his pragmatic and philanthropic jurisprudence.
He says beforehand (2089; 82; 5) that he will not show 'human great-
ness'; but unlike Galileo in a similar situation he remains true to him-
self and his work. What most attracts him about the Grusha case seems
to be the chance to shake Grusha out of her bovine slowness into a
more active assertion of her right to Michael; when she becomes excited
and denounces his apparent class justice he is delighted (2100; 92).
Not only does he allow this unmasking of feudal justice; he also distorts
the point at issue, refusing to take seriously the evidence on the legally
decisive matter of maternity (2096; 88), never touching on the mother's
abandonment of the child, and finally wrongly claiming that the case is
obscure and the duty of finding a mother for the child thus devolves
on him (2103; 94). Thus he puts the utility of the judgment before its
legality, as he does too in pronouncing the 'wrong' divorce and in de-
claring the Abashvili estates forfeit to be used as a playground because
the city children need one (2104; 95). 32 His liking for Grusha and the
poor performance put up by the lawyers on the other side make him
determine to disregard the duress he is under. (He does not forget it:
he prepares, and makes, a quick getaway after his judgment.)
In The Augsburg Chalk Circle Dollinger similarly put utility first, but
with no intention of permanently damaging, still less of mocking,
established law. Azdak has more in common with Till Eulenspiegel in
another Brecht story, Eulenspiegel als Richter ('Eulenspiegel as Judge',
11, 371f.). He creates around himself a Saturnalia, a period of misrule,
like that which in Greek comedies figures as a reminiscence of the
Golden Age of Kronos 88 - the Golden Age is invoked by the Singer (2105;
96; 6). He is a rogue and jester, a parodist who excels himself when for
once he sets up a positive principle. And after doing so he must disappear
(with an echo of Goethe's poem Der Fischer: 'und ward nicht mehr
gesehen'. 2105): he is no longer safe. He has clarified and modified a
few things about the feudal order. given impulses to action- and he
leaves the seeds without seeing whether they will grow.
(VIII) THE PRODUCTIVITY OF THE COMMUNES
The Soviet citizens of act 1 have not only just fought Hitler. an ex-
pression of the political will of the Socialist system; they also live in a
state which by its very nature is a constant challenge to all forms of
capitalism. In contrast to the state of destructive competition in capital-
ism. of which Hitler's war was in Brecht's view only the most striking
development. here the good of society and the good of the individual
converge. The pleasures of living in Communism are the pleasures of
production. The people we see are connoisseurs of cheese. whether
themselves goat-keepers or not. They are fascinated by the tools of pro-
gress. such as plans for new technical advances: they vindicate Galileo's
confidence that mankind is open to the workings of reason. They take
pleasure in discussion, they can quote Mayakovsky, and they have enough
leisure to rehearse the play of the Chalk Circle, which has been revised
(2007; 8; 1)- this clearly refers to the fact that the biological mother
does not get the child- to bring it into line with new ideas of productiv-
ity. They feel pleasure that their existence allows decisions for the
benefit of all to be made so easily, whereas in the feudal world many
chances were necessary to provide a happy ending. T. M. Holmes, how-
ever, points out that even in 1945 the wise communal decisions are only
made possible by a bureaucrat, the visiting commissar, waiving his right
to impose his will on the communes, so that there is in act 1 at least
some of the same tension as in the rest of the play. 54
The only thing to suffer in the communal life shown here is the in-
dividual's attachment to a particular piece of ground. The old man on
the right appeals to law, history and sentiment- 'what kind of tree
stands beside the house where one was born' (2003; 5)- in his attempt
to keep the valley, and finds the cheese produced elsewhere 'barely
decent' (2003; 4) on the unprovable ground that the goats like the
strange grass less. But his opposite number disagrees about the cheese:
it is excellent. This fits with the reversal of the Chalk Circle story. An-
other mother is not necessarily bad for the child; other ground is not
necessarily bad for the goat. The two concepts attacked here are founda-
tions of National Socialist ideology, the components of the slogan 'Blut
und Boden', blood and soil: the ties of blood leading to the concept
of race and Aryan purity, the attachment to the soil considered to justify
the building of a Greater Germany. It is the modern Georgians who not
only overcome Hitler, but also change the old play to give it lessons
opposed to his ideology.
Brecht's answer to Hitler is not now, as in the first version of Galileo
or in Schweyk, the answer of the little man who has to duck under
until it is safe to show his head again. It is a triumphant assertion which
need not stop to argue or question. Hitler and his ideology vanquished,
the world is again safe for those who are truly modern, who in their
working life are busy improving things, putting to work a productive
critical attitude, and able to entertain themselves with plays which, as
adapted, mixing old and new wisdom (2007; 8; 1), show the same atti-
tudes in an embryonic stage. The topicality and relevance of the Grusha
and Azdak plots thus depends on their being embedded in a post-Hitler
reality.
A frequent excuse for cutting this scene- which is not a 'prologue';
Brecht dropped this designation of it in 195 6- is that it is impossibly
starry-eyed in its view of Soviet Russia. Critics who believe that Brecht
the Communist and Brecht the Writer kept tripping each other up ex-
plain it as the product either of wilful blindness to facts or of a cynical
acquiescence in East German demands for ideology and socialist realism
(though it was written before East Germany was invented). The truth
is more complicated. Brecht had written 'the USSR is still very far from
reaching the state of productive forces in which leadership, e.g., no
longer means domination' (Aj., 1, 77: 1.1.40). He did not believe Stalin's
state would wither away: Walter Benjamin charmingly describes Brecht
impersonating the Soviet Union: he 'assumes a cunning, furtive expres-
sion ... and says, with a sly, sidelong glance ... : "I know I ought to
wither away".' 35 And Rosa Luxemburg, after whom one of the colchoses is
named, was a Communist leader by no means happy with Russian
developments between October 1917 and her death. Incidentally, Brecht
almost named the goat-owning commune after her, but Eisler pointed
out that 'goat' in German is a term for a silly female, not to be associ-
ated with a great revolutionary! 36 Russian critics, notably Ilya Fradkin,
are rightly sceptical about the scene as a portrayal of Russian actuality.
and at least one Russian director has declared it unstageable in Russia. 37
Nor it is a tongue-in-cheek tractor- Utopia; if Brecht wrote such pieces at
all, it was only after settling in East Germany. Nor is it a forecast about
Soviet reality of 1985 or 2025, for in the course of historical develop-
ment dialectical changes would by then have come about which a writer
in Brecht's time could not anticipate. 38
Perhaps we can best call it a provisional Utopia: people in the present
represented as acting in ways which can only be expected, if at all, in
a very distant future. Scene 10 of Galileo foreshortens history similarly,
making an ideal state spring out of the seventeenth century. Brecht
chooses to disregard all the evidence about the Russian reality of 1945
and to hold fast to one overriding aspect: as the most progressive
country, Russia is the one to associate with an ideal of humane be-
haviour. That the visiting arbitrator-commissar finds no work to do
adumbrates the Marxian withering-away of the state in a quite fantastic
manner. Brecht presumably holds on to the apparent presentation of a
real place in the present time only as a counterbalance to the vague
chronology of the other two plots and their fairy-tale improbability.
Discussion will continue as to whether the treatment is adequate; but we
should do Brecht the justice of assuming that he sincerely wanted to
portray, just for once, a positively better society such as he is striving
towards, and that this was the best way he could find.
(IX) PRESENTATION AND LANGUAGE
The bridge episode of act 3 is a vehicle for empathy with Grusha, and -
like the death of Swiss Cheese in Mother Courage- does a great deal
to undo the effects of all the social comment, the coolness and the dis-
tancing techniques used elsewhere. The most notable of these are dealt
with under the headings of narration and setting, but it should be pointed
out here that whilst the Grusha plot has an epic narrator the Azdak plot
is less in need of one. Thus by a bold stroke Brecht was able to make
Ernst Busch double as Singer and Azdak in the 1954 production. This
underlines that against Grusha's silence and hesitancy, Azdak is voluble
and in control, the driving force of his plot, 39 just as in Galileo, which
has a similar lack of epic effects, Galileo was. It also stresses that the
Azdak we see is an actor, whom for the first part of the play we have
seen as an actor-singer; and it allows Ernst Busch to show the range of
his talents.
When Grusha does talk, she is down-to-earth. The pithy 'Mittagszeit,
essen d'Leut' (2027; cf. 27 'Noon time, eating time') shows a South
German stamp in its elision and impure rhyme, and the following sen-
tences vary from the colloquial ('wie bei Fiirstens', bringing the nobility
down to the level of neighbours) to the vulgar ('earned our money sitting
on our bottom'). False deference to superiors is not in her make-up; she
calls Azdak a 'drunken onion' (2100; 92). Her songs are popular: that
promising to wait for Simon (2018f.; 19; 2) echoes distantly a popu-
lar song of the Second World War by the Soviet writer Konstantin
Simonov; 40 the song of Sosso Robakidse (2026; 26; 3), intended to
give her courage, has also a topical reference at the time of a Persian
war.
Azdak on the other hand has a rich plebeian langu:tge and a stock of
proverbs which get great social statements into a small compass. 41 In
a few lines of dialogue with Simon, 'When the horse was shod . . .'
(2099; 91; 6), the truism that the weaker is subject to the stronger
(from Galileo) is followed through a series of absurd consequences culmin-
ating in the weak person asserting the freedom he claims only by hurting
himself (a theme from Mother Courage). Finally Azdak objects to Simon's
crudity, but he himself is none too careful. Also part of his linguistic
virtuosity is the parody of the Grand Duke's clipped speech, leading into
the proof that all the princes have a way of speaking that should be
suspect to the lower orders (2078; 72). The comic element is obvious
in this overflowing energy, set against the muted lyricism of the Grusha
scenes. The Singer too in his ballad of Azdak gleefully presents such pairs
of concepts as 'Gibher und Abgezwack' (2083; cf. 77, 'Come Here's and
Listen-You's') among its colourful rhymes to the name Azdak.
The Singer's language is marked by rhetorical procedures, such as
parallelism with variation: 'Then the Governor . . . I Then the for-
tress ... I Then the goose .. .' (2013; 14; 2). Adjectives appositionally
placed after their nouns lend emphasis: 'Die Panzerreiter nehmen das
Kind fort, das teure' (2064; cf. 61, 'The Ironshirts took the child away,
the precious child'). Apostrophe and invocation give a solemn tone: 'Oh,
blindness of the great! ... Oh, Wheel of Fortune! Hope of the people!'
(2015; 15; 2)- but this is also parodied: 'Oh, confusion! The wife dis-
covers that she has a husband!' (2058; 55; 4). His lyrical descriptions of
the effect of passing time on Grusha are reminiscent, with their emphasis
on transcience, of Brecht's early poems: 'As she sat by the stream to
wash the linen .. .' {2059f.; 56; 4). 'Mit gehenden Monden' makes two
poetic effects in the German which are lost in translation ('As the months
passed by'). But a more sophisticated way of producing sympathetic
awareness of Grusha's problems is to interpolate officialese and contorted
syntax to contrast with the emotive terms: 'Sehnsucht hat es gegeben,
gewartet worden ist nicht. I Der Eid ist gebrochen. Warum, wird nicht
mitgeteilt' (2063; cf. 60, 'There was great yearning .. .'). Sentiment is
prevented from relapsing into sentimentality by avoiding such obvious
terms as 'empfinden', to feel emotions. Another way of encouraging
sentiment without false pathos is by introducing everyday actions among
the potentially emotive content: 'I had to care for what otherwise would
have come to harm I I had to bend down on the floor for breadcrumbs I
I had to tear myself to pieces for what was not mine .. .' (2064; 60; 4).
The leisureliness of the singer's reports of Grusha's inner life, the cun-
ning metrical variations, even the idyllic comment in some places, as in
the evocation of the evening Angelus (2024; 24; 2) cannot blind one
to the social context. Mention of the Angelus is part of Michael's threat
to Grusha: if she does not heed him, she will not partake of life's satis-
factions. But more in evidence in the play, and in the singer's comments,
is the obverse: the punishment for heeding Michael's cries, the punish-
ment inflicted by a hostile society on goodness.
There are frightening elements in the play. The Ironshirts in their
stiff, shapeless clothing and grotesque attitudes repeat an effect which
had been a success in the pre-Hitler Man is Man. Against a background
of a severed head (the Governor's head is displayed in Nukha after his
execution right to the end of the play) and a hanged judge they listen
threateningly to Azdak's self-denunciation and then suddenly. with de-
moniac laughter, turn to his persecution, which ends just as abruptly. But
the two who pursue Grusha are also comic, and a microcosm of the
social order: one to give orders, the other to execute them. Brecht rubs
in the unfairness of things by using N.C.O. cliches. The private is always
a 'blockhead'. his every movement shows he is 'insubordinate', he is
subjected to orders in the infinitive (a nuance lost in the English) and little
sermons: 'A good soldier has his heart and soul in it .. .' (2034; 33; 3).
The corporal's rough sadism comes out in his coarse innuendoes in
dealing with Grusha. Otherwise verbal humour is rare in the play: a
restrained pun on Trauung. wedding, and Trauer, mourning (2053; cf. 50)
comes in the wedding scene, an episode of wild movement. The apparently
imminent death of the bridegroom makes everyone hurry over the mar-
riage: his mother rushes around making arrangements, the villagers rush
in so as not to miss anything- and crowd the room intolerably. Finally
the two women, unable to get round the guests. have to throw the bits
of cake among the crowd, a buffeted and swaying knot of eating, chatter-
ing. singing. praying people among whom eventually the talk about the
end of the war becomes audible. The dying husband, a pale and skeletal
figure, suddenly appears at the door- a memento mori turned into a
husband, the spectre at the feast who turns the mock wedding into a
reality and stops Grusha's intention of using it as a social convenience.
This night-shirted apparition causes a swift exodus of screaming guests. 42
Movement is important at the end of the play too. Brecht intended, in
order to avoid intrinsically false folkloristic dancing. to arrange the final
dance as a set of mimes by which all those present would demonstrate
their work- emphasising the theme of productivity better than general
pointless merrymaking could; but as this turned out hard to understand,
it was cut to a few dance steps before the final curtain. 43
As usual. Brecht added plenty of business in rehearsal. The peasant
woman to whom Grusha wants to entrust the child, for instance, ex-
presses when she comes out her suspicion of anything left lying around
in these uncertain times. her fear that someone may be lying in wait
with a cosh to catch her off guard, her apprehension that the child has
some infectious disease. her awareness that children picked up off the
street usually turn out ne'er-do-wells whatever one does for them; then
she finds the child has fine linen, is of good family; and suddenly she
decides to give the child a home despite all doubts (Mat. K .. 65-7). And
after she has put forward her arguments for keeping the child, her hus-
band does not follow her in immediately. which could mean he is going
to continue arguing inside; he stays to shake his head at the folly of
women and. still more. at the folly of men who let the weaker sex get
the better of them (Mat. K.. 69). In the final scene, the first lawyer
advances to make his plea with self-satisfied bounds and an exaggerated
bow to the judge. A similar incongruity is that between the nephew's
diminutive figure and his family mask, clipped speech, marionette-like
movements, and pretensions to the office of judge. 44
Dessau's music is difficult and controversial. 45 Some of the melodies
are taken from Azerbaijan folk music, with characteristic ornamentation;
but the melodic ornamentation of the Jewish synagogue tradition, and
a whole catalogue of other exotic effects, are also drawn on. Special
percussion, including three tomtoms, gives more atmosphere than Gru-
sinian authenticity, and the Berliner Ensemble used a special Gongspiel-
a set of eight gongs played by hammers like a piano and having pedals
for damping or for a special steely effect. Dessau desires nine in-
strumentalists; at least five are necessary. For Azdak's investiture as judge
Dessau provides a little march quoting the waltz from Act II of Tchai-
kovsky's Eugene Onegin- with melody in the accordion and accompani-
ment in the percussion! Controversy centres, however, around the long
part of the Singer. which is laid out for v-effects. Coldness in telling
Grusha's story suggests the horror of an era in which kindness is self-
destructive. Such phrases as 'Feuer schlugen sie aus meinem Nacken'
(2063; 59 'My neck was burnt by fire' is not so graphic and direct; 4)
are set in the cadence of a question and with musical accent on gram-
matically unstressed syllables, to aid the singer in expressing surprise
at the emotion or its formulation; but critics merely found this, like the
arbitrary melismatic treatment of some words intended to give oriental
atmosphere. made the words incomprehensible, and few hearers or
musicians have defended the difficulty of comprehension as a spur to
greater attentiveness.
(x) SETTING AND COSTUME
Among the techniques which relativise the reality of stage events and
work against uncontrolled empathy are Karl von Appen's sets. The back-
drops are of silky white, painted in Chinese style and having the primary
function of being beautiful and giving pleasure in their own right. 46 They
are frequently changed during the individual acts, particularly act 3.
Not weighted by battens. they swirl over the stage like flags as they
are droppedY For acts 2. 5 and 6 the town is painted- a mass of box-
like houses jumbled on top of one another, of central Asian inspiration.
In act 3 the delicate calligraphic style comes into its own for distant
mountains. gnarled trees and threatening percipices. In act 4 a broad
landscape suggests Simon's wanderings. in act 5 Azdak's perambula-
tions. At the end, when Azdak has invited those present to an open-air
dance, the procession out takes place in front of a drawing of a group
of musicians and a dancer with a tambourine.
What is placed before the backdrop should, according to Brecht, re-
mind one of the Christmas crib: overloaded, precious and naive. The
palace has a richly worked silver gate- in which the red fires of rebel-
lion can be reflected. 48 Another. less pretentious, gate represents the
church; the two stand side-by-side on stage, not spatially tied to the idea
of a building behind. A curving red carpet connects them. Props in act
2 include large. heavy. practical pieces of luggage: a wicker basket,
studded trunks and so on. In act 3 the turntable stage is much used.
Grusha runs against its turning. and sets for the various episodes come
to her on it. having been quickly built up during the previous episode
behind a drop screening the back third of the turntable. There is no real
break between episodes. Walking from one episode to the next, Grusha
sees the next building or landmark in front of her. The music supports
the idea of a continuum in which the tension is not allowed to drop-
a film-style chase sequence. 49 The peasant's hut is solid, heavy wood; at
the climax of the scene. the bridge is realistically rickety. with missing
floor laths and only one rope to hold on to. Act 4 is largely interiors:
solid furniture. a loom as high as Grusha. and after the marriage an out-
sized cask for Yussup's bath. When Simon returns, the river is shown by
two ground-rows of rushes running from backdrop to proscenium, a true
naive effect. In act 5. the court has a heavy practical gate and gallows.
in contrast to a light-framed, pointed construction which is the roomy
judgment-seat in which Azdak can recline as he is carried round the
assizes.
Karl von Appen took responsibility for costumes as well as for sets.
The women of the communes. even the agricultural expert, are in volumin-
ous shawls covering the head like a wimple and reaching over the upper
arms and back; the same folksy headdress is worn by married women in
the main plots. Among the men of 1944. if not in uniform. fur hats are
in favour; in the historical scenes there are steeple hats for those in
authority, spiked helmets for the soldiers. a high pudding-basin shape
for peasants and servants. The architects wear cloche hats crowned
with the emblem of a snail. architects being in von Appen's opinion slow-
moving creatures. 50 The Governor's wife has a cross between coronet and
tiara. crowned with peacock feathers. Grusha generally wears her own
hair. parted in the middle and formed into long plaits; the female singers
show a similar arrangement under their wimples.
The lords and ladies have masks. partly to complement their exagger-
ated costumes, partly because the actors are to be thought of as ama-
teurs who will take pleasure in dressing up. Their servants and soldiers
not involved in the action have partial masks, attaching them to the
ruling class, but incompletely (and facilitating doubling). The poorer
people could not have masks, as their costume was drab and inexpressive.
The double function of Simon, who as a soldier should inspire fear, but as
Grusha's lover must not, meant his having not the mask other Ironshirts
had, but a very masculine beard instead. Masks do not separate the good
from the bad: Grusha's sister-in-law did not have one. Rather, once
limited to the upper classes, they show the rulers' immutability. Whereas
the evil sister-in-law has changes of mood and rich expression, the Gov-
ernor is always bored, the Fat Prince always grinning, the nephew always
stupid. The Governor's wife has a half-mask, so that she can be seen
to smile at the Adjutant. 5 1
The Governor and his wife are in long, rich, light-coloured robes; the
architects, doctors, lawyers, have darker dress. The Ironshirts, of appar-
ently Samurai inspiration. have long, stiff, heavy tabards over long-
skirted coachman's cloaks. The Fat Prince- that Goering-figure- also has
quasi-Japanese armour, incongruously completed by a dainty fan. Ser-
vants, peasants and townspeople have more or less ragged clothes of
rough material: leggings, short overcoats and tied belts are typical of
the men, shapeless heavy jackets with skirts down to the ground and
aprons almost as long of the women, the whole in brown and beige,
occasionally a touch of red. The same clothes, in better material, better
preserved and with the addition of a cross at the neck, show the pros-
perity of Grusha's sister-in-law. The girl whom Azdak finds guilty of rape
has a skirt slit right up the front to show close-fitting ankle-length
drawers. Michael was represented at first by a doll, but after the winter
in the Northern Mountains a real boy appears.
8 Assessment
Practically all Brecht did is based on opposition: the split of Shen Teh
and Shui Ta is the most obvious example. It is useless to object to the
crassness of this duality, dismiss Brecht as simplistic, and go on to con-
clude that despite his errors he did quite well considering the era he had
to live through. 1 The shock-effect of the extreme is only part of his
uniqueness, and so is the tenacity with which he applies Marxian views
to the business of men's communal life. Each one of the plays we have
examined is influenced in its very structure by Marx's concepts of histori-
cal movement and of society. Another part of his impact is based on his
willingness to differentiate within the contradictions. Shui Ta is not all
bad. Grusha is not all good. Theoretical Marxism does not sit like an
incubus on the characters either, but is thoroughly modified by the
application of Chinese concepts of politeness, needed to complete the
image of people living in harmony as an ideal. The battle against oppres-
sion makes those who participate in it tense and even evil, but its aim,
never to be lost sight of, is goodness and relaxation. Art must (for, if
one does not believe in a religion, no other area of life can) represent
the aim too, however hard the struggle, and must exemplify the serenity
which in real life there is little chance for.
When we consider the interplay of exaggeration and nuance, of mass
constraints and individual dignity, of action and relaxation, of commit-
ment and distance, in Brecht, and when we ask what other playwrights
offer similar fruitful complexities, then we may come close to grasping
his greatness. Next we might look at the unmatched lyrical form in which
he can put his thoughts, for instance the words which the Singer in The
Caucasian Chalk Circle attributes to Michael and which make Grusha
pick him up. What use, Hanns Eisler asks, are distancing and Marx and
Lenin to a non-politician, until they fall into the hands of 'one of the
greatest poets of German literature'? 2 And Ronald Bryden some years ago
expressed discontent that, until the English are converted to learning
foreign languages, 'discussion of Brecht here seems doomed to centre on
what he said rather than how he said it; on Brecht the translatable
political didact rather than the greatest modem German poet.' 8 One can
be more sanguine: few of Brecht's effects rely on pure sound, and many
of the effects that rely on the riches of the German language and tradi-
tion can be approximated to by transposition into English; certainly the
translations of the four plays we have dealt with show very much more
than just politics in dialogue form.
If we then examine his plays as the writings of a man_ steeped in
theatre practice, embodying a new vision of a possible theatre experience,
we have the third element of Brecht's greatness before us. The epic
components of the plays serve to open up the stage for the presentation
of the dramatic action in the context of a wide historical development,
and most of all they aim at a unique interplay of appeal to the head and
appeal to the heart. In keeping with the general demand for serenity and
relaxation, the play on the stage is to allow the audience to keep cool
and laughing, not to put it into emotional tension which impairs posses-
sion of the faculties. Brecht-theatre should make us use our senses and
our sense to the full, not sweep us off our feet and make us passive. In
producing such effects, the collective of people who bring about the
theatrical experience exemplify the kind of human co-operation which is
Brecht's ethical ideal, and we are to be aware of this realised ideal at
work for our pleasure.
Theatre, freed by the rise of film and television from the constraint to
imitate reality. can develop as a means of commenting on reality in
many different ways. In this development Brecht's conception of theatre
must have a major role to play, since it uses to best advantage pre-
cisely the things about theatre which film cannot do or cannot do so
well, 4 mainly because in the theatre living actors supported by a range
of techniques of various kinds confront a living audience. The specifically
theatrical experience is Brecht's first aim, never propaganda; and his
theatrical imagination, his eye for stage movement, also adds an extra
note to his style as a playwright. He is not so much of a political activ-
ist, certainly not in the plays we have considered, as were Piscator's
writers before him or as is Peter Weiss after him. But the construction
of situations and dialogue with the stage in mind allows him to incorpor-
ate, without apparent effort, at least as much basic political content as
they can. without interfering with the gracefulness and humour he de-
mands of theatre.
As a Marxist, an intellectual. a proponent of reason in the theatre,
Brecht sometimes seems an outsider in an age whose drama seems to
have moved towards sensual and a-logical adventures, from Sartre's
Huis clos through Beckett, Ionesco and Pinter to the recent writers who
each seem to have developed some sensational neurosis to call their
own. As Martin Esslin has pointed out, the common core Brecht and his
great contemporaries have is the disorientation of personality, and for
this the contradictoriness of modern society is responsible. All these
dramatists show an alienated vision of the existent, or a vision of the
Assessment 173
existent as alienated. Brecht was fascinated enough by Beckett to work
on an adaptation of one of his plays. He is aware of the nightmare
aspects of our communal schizophrenia. But he does not trap himself
in an irrationality that would cut him off from giving any answers. For
him man is good. if not perfectible, and he is able to see his work, in
classical style, within a tradition of humane elements: Jesus, Luther,
Bacon, Goethe, Marx, Mo Tzu- none of them accepted uncritically, but
all pointing to the idea that it is worth while for men to attempt to
alter their fate.
Notes
References to Brecht's works in German text are generally to the collected

edition in 20 volumes:
Bertolt Brecht: Gesammelte Werke (werkausgabe edition suhrkamp), Frank-

furt 1967.
Except in the case of the plays dealt with in detail in this book, the volume
number is quoted first, the page following after a comma •. thus: 15, 174. It is
difficult to date many of Brecht's texts, so I have dispensed with dates, but it
may be useful to the reader to know that a single, very approximately chrono-
logical sequence runs through volumes 8-10 (poems), another through volumes
15-16 (essays on theatre), another through volumes 18-19 (essays on literature
and art) and another through volume 20 (essays on politics); and that these
groups of volumes are (like volumes 1-7, plays) through-paginated. Thus:
vol. 8 pp. 1-424, poems 1913-33.

val. 9 pp. 425-822, poems 1933-41.
vol. 10 pp. 823-1082, poems 1941-56.
vol. 15 pp. 1-498, theatre essays 1918-1942.
vol. 16 pp. 499-942. theatre essays 1937-1956.
vol. 18 pp. 1-284,literary essays 1920-1939.
vol. 19 pp. 285-556,literary essays 1934-1956.
val. 20 pp. 1-350, political essays 1919-56.
His journals are quoted in the editions
Bertolt Brecht: Arbeitsjournal, 2 vols., Frankfurt 1973 (abbreviated Ai .; my

translations from it retain Brecht's private convention of not capitalising) and
Bertolt Brecht: Tagebucher 1920-1922. Autobiographische Aufzeichnungen
1920-1954, ed. Herta Ramthun, Frankfurt 1975 (abbreviated Tb.).
Theoretical works and poems contained in the following editions are quoted
from them:
176 Notes
Bre(:ht on Theatre- The Development of an Aesthetic, ed. and trs. John
Willett, London (Methuen) 1964 (abbreviated B. on Theatre).
Bertolt Brecht: The Messingkauf Dialogues, trs. John Willett, London
(Methuen) 1965 (abbreviated M. Dial.).
Bertolt Brecht: Poems, ed. John Willett and Ralph Manheim, London (Eyre
Methuen) 1976 (abbreviated B. Poems).
References to plays in English text are to the Methuen Modern Plays series,
London (Eyre Methuen):
The Life of Galileo, trs. Desmond I. Vesey, 1963, repr. 1974 (abbreviated G.).
Mother Courage and her Children, trs. Eric Bentley, 1962, repr, 1976.
The Good Person of Szechwan, trs. John Willett, 1965, repr. 1974.
The Caucasian Chalk Circle, trs. James and Tania Stern, with W. H. Auden,
1963, repr. 1975.
Quotations from these plays are supplied first with the page number in volumes
3, 4 or 5 of Gesammelte Werke (Galilei in vol. 3, Kreidekreis in vol. 5, the
others in vol. 4); then comes the page number in the Methuen edition; finally
(unless clear from the context) the number of the scene, for those not using
either of these editions. Alternative editions, some using other translations, are
published by Eyre Methuen, Blackie and Penguin in Great Britain; and Grove
Press, Random House and Pantheon Books in the U.S. Grove Press publish
individual editions of all four plays- Galileo in the second version with two
scenes cut.
The following important or useful books on Brecht, or by his friends, are re-
ferred to in text and footnotes by author's name only.
Hanns Eisler: Gesammelte Werke III/7 = Gespriiche mit Hans Bunge,

Leipzig 1975.
Erich Engel: Schriften. Dber Theater und Film, Berlin 1971.
Martin Esslin: Brecht. The Man and his Work, New York 1974 (previous
editions under the title Brecht, a Choice of Evils).
John Fuegi: The Essential Brecht, Los Angeles 1972.
Therese Giehse: 'lch hab nichts zum Sagen', Gespriiche mit Monika Sperr,
2nd. ed., Munich 1975.
Ronald Gray: Brecht the Dramatist, Cambridge 1976.
Fritz Hennenberg: Dessau-Brecht. Musikalische Arbeiten, Berlin 1963.
Claude Hill: Bertolt Brecht, Boston 1975.
Walter Hinck: Die Dramaturgic des spiiten Brecht, Gottingen 1959.
Helmut Jendreiek: Bertolt Brecht. Drama der Veriinderung, Dusseldorf 1969.
Volker Klotz: Bertolt Brecht. Versuch itber das Werk, 4th. ed., Bad Homburg
1971.
Karl Korsch: Karl Marx, New York 1963, (also earlier editions).
Karl-Heinz Ludwig: Bertolt Brecht. Philosophische Grundlagen und lmpli-
kationen seiner Dramaturgic, Bonn 1975.
Hans Mayer: Brecht in der Geschichte, Frankfurt 1971.
Notes 177
Rainer Pohl: Strukturelemente und Entwicklung von Pathosformen in der
Dramensprache Bertold [sic] Brechts, Bonn 1969.
James M. Ritchie: Brecht: Der kaukasische Kreidekreis, London, 1976.
Kathe Riilicke-Weiler: Die Dramaturgie Brechts. Theater als Mittel der Ver-
iinderung, 2nd. ed., Berlin 1968.
Ernst Schumacher: Drama und Geschichte. Bertolt Brechts 'Leben des
Galilei' und andere Stucke, 2nd. ed., Berlin 1968.
Theaterarbeit. 6 Autfuhrungen des Berliner Ensembles, ed. Ruth Berlau, Ber-
tolt Brecht, et al., 3rd. ed., Berlin n.d.
Klaus Volker: Bertolt Brecht. Eine Biographie, Munich 1976.
Manfred Wekwerth: Schriften. Arbeit mit Brecht, Berlin 1973.
John Willett: The Theatre of Bertolt Brecht. A Study from eight Aspects,
London 1959 (also later editions).
Four useful volumes of commentaries, notes and factual data are published in
the edition suhrkamp and edited by Werner Hecht:
Materialien zu Brechts 'Leben des Galilei', 1963 (abbreviated Mat. G.).

Materialien zu Brechts 'Mutter Courage und ihre Kinder', 1964 (abbreviated
(Mat. C.).
Materialien zu Brechts 'Der gute Mensch von Sezuan', 1968 (abbreviated
Mat. S.).
Materialien zu Brechts 'Der kaukasische Kreidekreis', 1969 (abbreviated
Mat. K.).
The abbreviation B]b. refers to the Brecht-]ahrbuch of the International Brecht

Society: the first three issues under the title Brecht heute/Brecht today, and
dated 1971, 1972, 1973-74; the fourth as Brecht-]ahrbuch 1974, all edited
by John Fuegi and collaborators.
Marx and Engels are generally quoted from their Selected Works in one
volume, 2nd printing, I.ondon 1970.
The notes following supply further bibliography on particular points.
CHAPTER 1 (pp. 1-14)

This chapter is partly based on Volker's book, which is the most up-to-date,
reliable and full account of Brecht's life, especially his relationships with
women. Another fairly full biography is contained in Esslin's book, though
some details must be treated with care; valuable details on Brecht's childhood
in Werner Frisch and K. W. Obermeier: Brecht in Augsburg, Erinnerungen,
Dokumente, Texte, Fotos, Berlin and Weimar 1975. Brecht is best put in the full
historical and cultural context by Frederic Ewen: Bertolt Brecht, His Life, His
Art and His Times, New York 1967 and London 1970.
1 Henning Rischbieter: Brecht, vol. 1, Velber 1966, p. 22.
2 Walter Benjamin: Understanding Brecht, London 1973, pp. 113f., 116.
3 Giehse, p. 195.
4 See Willy Haas: Bert Brecht, Berlin 1958, p. 5.
5 See Zuckmayer's contribution in Engel, pp. 251£.
178 Notes
6 See Fritz Kortner's memoir in Engel, pp. 237-9.
7 See Mayer, p. 78.
8 See Erwin Leiser: 'Der Neinsager. Notizen iiber Brecht und die Politik', in
the collection Bertolt Brecht, Bad Godesberg 1966, 15-26.
9 Willett, pp. 116f.
10 It was first performed in Prague; see Kurt R. Grossmann: 'Die Exilsitua-
tion in der Tschechoslowakei', in Manfred Durzak (ed): Die deutsche
Exilliteratur 1933-1945, Stuttgart 1973, p. 69.
11 Wekwerth, pp. 26-8.
12 Eisler, p. 50.
13 See especially letter from Brecht to Helene Weigel, 21.4.49, in Werner
Hecht and Siegfried Unseld (eds): Helene Weigel zu ehren, Frankfurt 1970,
pp. 62f.
14 Andrl! Miiller and Gerd Semmer: Geschichten vom Herrn B.• 100 neue
Brecht-Anekdoten, Munich 1968, p. 93.
15 Up to the end of 1956, Senora Carrar's Rifles had achieved 24 professional
productions in East Germany and Puntila 18; Mother Courage ten (nine of
of them by 1951), The Caucasian Chalk Circle one; Galileo and The Three-
penny Opera, among others, remained unperformed. Data exclude the Ber-
liner Ensemble, and are from Werner Hecht (ed): Brecht-Dialog 1968,
Berlin 1968, pp. 324-33. In 1954, after rationalisation, there were about
68 professional drama companies in East Germany.
16 See Christoph Funke et al. (eds): Theater-Bilanz 1945-1969, Berlin 1971,
p. 226.
17 For attitudes to Brecht in the GDR see Manfred Jager: 'Zur Rezeption des
Stiickeschreibers Brecht in der DDR', Text + Kritik, Sonderband Bertolt
Brecht 1, 1973, 107-18.
18 Giehse, p. 95.
19 Eisler, p. 72.

1 See Keith A. Dickson: 'Brecht's Doctrine of Nature', B]b. 3, 106-21.
2 Wekwerth, p. 69; and the same author's Brecht?, Munich 1976, p. 16.
3 The approach particularly associated with Martin Esslin (see Chapters 9
and 10 of his book), though he puts his viewpoint with great sensibility. His
approach is applied to particular plays by Charles R. Lyons: Bertolt Brecht.
The Despair and the Polemic, Carbondale, Ill., 1968.
4 Engel, p. 38.
5 See Ludwig, pp. 126f., and Korsch, esp. p. 86.
6 Korsch, p. 49.
7 See Robert Brustein: The Theatre of Revolt, London 1965, pp. 252f.
8 See Korsch, p. 85.
9 See Klaus-Detlef Miiller: Die Funktion der Geschichte im Werk Bertolt
Brechts, Tiibingen 1972, p. 68.
10 See Ludwig, pp. 163-5.
11 Kathe Riilicke-Weiler: 'Bemerkungen Brechts zur Kunst, Notate 1951-1955',
Weimarer Beitriige, Brecht-Sonderheft 1968, 5-11, p. 8.
Notes 179
12 Brecht, letter to Korsch, November 1941, quoted by Wolfdietrich Rasch:
'Bertolt Brechts marxistischer Lehrer', in Rasch: Zur deutschen Literatur
seit der ]ahrundertwende, Stuttgart 1967, 243-73, p. 265.
13 See Ludwig, p. 111.
14 See Heinz Briiggemann: Literarische Technik und soziale Revolution, Rein-
bek 1973, pp. 76ff.
15 See Rasch, op. cit. (n. 12 above), esp. p. 252.
16 On Lukacs and the (rather woolly) realism debate, see Volker, pp. 264-85;
and Lothar Baier: 'Streit urn den schwarzen Kasten', Text + Kritik, Sander-
band Bertolt Brecht I, 1973, 37-44.
17 Miiller and Semmer, op. cit. (n. 14 to Chapter 1), p. 47.
18 Andre Miiller and Gerd Semmer: Geschichten vom Herrn B.• 99 Brecht-
Anekdoten, Frankfurt 1967, p. 37.
19 See Me-ti: Buch der Wendungen (12, 417-585) and Ludwig, p. 56 Anmer-
kungen.
20 On Brecht and the Soviet Union see Ludwig, pp. 117-21.
21 On productivity see Riilicke-Weiler, pp. 29ff.
22 Erich Engel: 'Zeittheater', in Engel, 17-26, p. 22.

This chapter would have taken a different form but for Kathe Riilicke-Weiler's
book, from which I take a number of points without further acknowledgement.
1 Esslin, p. 127.
2 See Klaus-Detlef Miiller: 'Der Philosoph auf dem Theater', Text + Kritik,
Sonderband Bertolt Brecht I, 1973, 45-71, esp. pp. 45-7.
3 In discussion with students of the Karl Marx University, Leipzig, 29.1.55,
quoted by Riilicke-Weiler, p. 44.
4 See Klaus-Detlef Miiller: Die Funktion der Geschichte im Werk Bertolt
Brechts, Tiibingen 1972, p. 151; and Ernst Schiirer: Georg Kaiser und
Bertolt Brecht, Frankfurt 1971, esp. pp. 47-54.
5 See Rolf Tarot: 'Ideologie und Drama', in Stefan Sonderegger et al. (eds):
Typologia Litterarum, Festschrift Max Wehrli, Zurich 1969, 351-66.
6 Eisler, p. 127.
7 As implicitly assumed by Esslin, pp. 150£.
8 On criticism and function, see Ludwig, pp. 44-9.
9 This argument is based on Ernst Nef: 'Das Aus-der-Rolle-Fallen als Mittel
der Illusionszerstorung bei Tieck und Brecht', Zeitschrift fur deutsche
Philologie, LXXXIII (1964), 191-215.
10 Willett, pp. 112f.
11 See Willett, pp. 179f., and his contribution in Communications of the In-
ternational Brecht Society, IV, 2 (Feb 1975), pp. 3£.; also Marjorie L.
Hoover: 'Brecht's Soviet Connection Tretiakov', B]b. 3, 39-56, esp. pp. 44-6.
12 On distancing see Ludwig, pp. 38-41.
13 See Ralph J. Ley: 'Francis Bacon, Galileo and the Brechtian Theater', in
Siegfried Mews and Herbert Knust (eds): Essays on Brecht. Theater and
Politics, Chapel Hill1974, 174-89.
14 Erich Engel: 'Brecht, Kafka und die Absurden', in Engel, 57-60.
15 Letter to Ilya Fradkin, 10.1.56, quoted by Riilicke-Weiler, p. 64.
180 Notes
16 As Esslin, p. 240. thinks. But he qualifies the statement with regard to the
late plays, p. 264.
17 On emotion in epic theatre see Riilicke-Weiler, pp. 51-3; the quotation
p. 53.
18 See Riilicke-Weiler, op. cit. (note 11 to Chapter 2), p. 7.
19 On Brecht and comedy see above all Fritz Martini: Lustspiele - und das
Lustspiel, Stuttgart 1973, section 'Oberlegungen zur Poetik des Lustspiels';
also Peter Christian Giese: Das 'Gesellschaftlich-Komische', Stuttgart
1974; and Kenneth S. Whitton: 'Friedrich Diirrenmatt and the Legacy of
Bertolt Brecht', Forum for Modern Language Studies, xn (1976), 65-81.
20 Marx, Zur Kritik der Hegelschen Rechtsphilosophie, quoted by Giese, op.
cit., p. 16.
21 See Mordecai Gorelik: 'On Brechtian Acting', Quarterly Journal of Speech,
LX (1974), 265-78, p. 271.
22 Wekwerth, p. 72.
23 Eric Bentley: 'Portrait of the Critic as a Young Brechtian', Theatre Quar-
terly, no. 21 (1976), 5-11, p. 6.
24 See Karl-Heinz Schoeps: 'Bertolt Brecht und George Bernard Shaw', B]b. 3,
156-72. For further affinities of the two, see the same author's 'Epic Struc-
tures in the Plays of Bernard Shaw and Bertolt Brecht', in Mews and Knust,
op. cit. (n. 13 above), 28-43.
25 On Brecht's language see Esslin, Chapter 5.
26 Some means of literary distancing are listed with examples by Gertrud
Fankhauser: Verfremdung als Stilmittel vor und bei Brecht, Tiibingen 1971,
pp. 41-8.
27 Often quoted, e.g. by Pohl, p. 29.
28 See the defence of Brecht's characterisation by Werner Mittenzwei: Ber-
tolt Brecht. Von der 'Massnahme' bis zu 'Leben des Galilei', Berlin and
Weimar 1965, pp. 323f.
29 See Esslin, pp. 38f.
30 See Fuegi, pp. 128f.
31 For a good summary of Brecht's early theory starting from this point,
see Willett, pp. 169-74.
32 For Brecht's place in the history of theory and dramatic form see Hinck,
pp. 24-9.
33 On gestus see Ludwig, pp. 17-22.
34 Werner Hecht: Aufsiitze zu Brecht, Berlin 1970, pp. 80f.
35 Manfred Wekwerth: Notate, Frankfurt 1967, pp. 14f.
36 For sympathy and empathy see Gorelik, op. cit. (n. 21 above), p. 269.
37 As they seem to be taken by Esslin, p. 139.
38 Mayer, p. 147.
39 Thomas K. Brown: 'Verfremdung in Action at the Berliner Ensemble', Ger-
man Quarterly, XLVI (1973), 525-39.
40 Angelika Hurwicz: Brecht inszeniert- Der kaukasische Kreidekreis, Velber
1964, p. [3]. This text is also available in Mat. K., 57-63.
41 Miiller and Semmer, op. cit. (n. 18 to Chapter 2), p. 75.
42 Riilicke-Weiler, p. 113; Werner Hecht (ed): Brecht-Dialog 1968, Berlin 1968,
p. 161.
Notes 181
43 Specimen in Theaterarbeit, 258-60.
44 On models see Theaterarbeit, 285-346; also Mat. C., 95-104.
45 Werner Hecht: Sieben Studien uber Brecht, Frankfurt 1972, p. 170.
46 Fuegi, p. 82.
47 Hecht, op. cit. (n. 34 above), p. 93.
48 Hurwicz, op. cit. (n. 40 above), p. [2].
49 See Kenneth Tynan's articles in New York Times, 11.1.76; Communications
from the International Brecht Society, v, 2 (Mar 1976); Plays and players,
XXIII, 6 (Mar 1976), 12-6.
50 See Funke, op. cit. (n. 16 to Chapter 1), pp. 292f.
51 See Henry Glade: 'Brecht and the Soviet Theater: a 1971 overview', B]b. 2,
164-73.
52 See Communications from the International Brecht Society, n, 3 (May
1973), p. 12. For a Marxist analysis of Brecht's popularity in West Germany,
see Ernst Schumacher: 'Brecht und seine Bedeutung ffir die Gesellschaft der
siebziger Jahre', B]b, 2, 27-87, esp. pp. 42f.
53 See Jack Zipes: 'Ein Interview mit Peter Stein', B]b. 3, 21Q-20.
54 See Communications from the International Brecht Society, IV, 3 (May
1975), p. 4 (Betty Nance Weber).
55 See Ernst Wendt: 'Moglichkeiten, Brecht zu spielen. Ein Uberblick', in the
collection Bertolt Brecht, Bad Godesberg 1966, 5-14.
56 In Bertolt Brecht in Britain, catalogue (by Nicholas Jacobs and Prudence
Ohlsen) of an exhibition at the National Theatre, London, 1977, p. 6. This
catalogue is the best source of information on its subject. For the quality
of 'British Brecht', see David Zane Mairowitz's reviews under this title in
Plays and players.

1 Marianne Kesting: Bertolt Brecht in Selbstzeugnissen und Bilddokumenten,
Reinbek 1959, p. 91.
2 The stage direction for her return is at the end of Galileo's long speech
(1341; 118), but Brecht had her in long before this. See Mat. G., 112
(Riilicke).
3 See Mittenzwei, op. cit. (n. 28 to Chapter 3), pp. 309, 326ff.
4 See Schumacher, pp. 62f.
5 Schumacher, p. 41.
6 Schumacher, pp. 72-81.
7 Gerhard Szczesny: Das Leben des Galilei und der Fall Bertolt Brecht, Frank-
furt 1966, p. 107; 12, 375f.
8 See Mittenzwei, op. cit. (n. 28 to Chapter 3), pp. 283£.
9 Quoted by Schumacher, p. 118.
10 See Mat. G., 140 (Rulicke).
11 Gunter Rohrmoser: 'Brecht. Das [sic] Leben des Galilei', in Benno von Wiese
(ed): Das deutsche Drama, vol. 2, Dusseldorf 1958, p. 405.
12 See Mat. G., 148 (Rulicke).
13 For science in the drama see Remy Charbon: Die Naturwissenschaften im
modemen deutschen Drama, Zurich and Munich 1974, pp. 134-6, 251£.
182 Notes
14 See Muller, op. cit. (n. 2 to Chapter 3), p. 48. For the full arguments on
Bacon's influence, see Ley, op. cit. (n. 13 to Chapter 3).
15 In The Times, 19.6.60; see Schumacher, p. 488.
16 Dated 1939 in Gesammelte Werke but more relevant to the second version.
17 See Schumacher, pp. 207-18, 349-63.
18 Esslin, pp. 168ff.
19 See Charbon, op. cit. (n. 13 above), pp. 113-16.
20 Mittenzwei, op. cit. (n. 3 above), p. 271.
21 See Henning Rischbieter: Brecht, vol. 2, Velber 1966, p. 11.
22 Brecht in rehearsal, 20.3.56, after Mat. G., 121 (Riilicke).
23 See Schumacher, p. 229.
24 Eisler, p. 152.
25 See Karl S. Weimar: 'The Scientist and Society', Modern Language Quar-
terly, xxvii (1966), 431-48, esp. p. 440.
27 See Erich Engel: '"Leben des Galilei'' von Bertolt Brecht' in Engel, 99-103,
esp. p. 99.
28 See Edward M. Berckman: 'Brecht's Galileo and the Openness of History',
Modernist Studies, I (2) (1974), 41-50, p. 46.
29 Schumacher, pp. 40f.
32 Schumacher, pp. 55ff.
33 See Fuegi, pp. 136f.
34 Korsch, p. 57.
36 See Richard Beckley: 'Adaptation as a Feature of Brecht's dramatic Tech-
nique', German Life & Letters, xv (1961-2), 274-84, p. 284.
37 Rainer Nagele: 'Zur Struktur von Brechts Leben des Galilei', Der Deutsch-
unterricht, xxm (1971), 86-99.
38 Riilicke-Weiler, p. 87.
40 See Alfred D. White: 'Brecht's Leben des Galilei: Armchair Theatre?',
German Life & Letters, XXVII (1973-4), 124-32.
41 John Sidney Groseclose: 'Scene Twelve of Bertolt Brecht's Galilei . . .',
Monatshefte fur deutschen Unterricht, LXII (1970). 367-82, p. 372.
42 See Herbert Knust: 'Brechts Dialektik vom Fressen und von der Moral',
B]b. 3, 221-50, esp. p. 231,_ note 18.
43 See White, op. cit. (n. 40 above).
44 Werner Hecht: Aufsiitze zu Brecht, Berlin 1970, p. 136.
45 Full details in Pohl, pp. 58f.
46 See Pohl, p. 131.
47 See Pohl, pp. 120f.
48 Aufbau einer Rolle, Laughtons Galilei, Berlin 1956, pp. 9-12, quoted by
Riilicke-Weiler, pp. 270f.
49 On scene 12 see Groseclose, op. cit. (n. 41 above); on the eyes particularly
p. 380, referring to a stage direction in the second version.
Notes 183
52 Volker, pp. 354£.

1 Klaus Volker: Brecht-Chronik, 2nd ed., Munich 1971, p. 78.
2 The scene titles, diverging from those in the text, and the gestic divisions,
are taken from the commentary in Mat. C., 19-80, and in Theaterarbeit,
228f.
3 See Fuegi, pp. 90-2.
5 See Keith A. Dickson: 'History, Drama and Brecht's Chronicle of the Thirty
Years War', Forum for Modern Language Studies, vr (1970), 255-72.
6 See Peter Leiser: Bertolt Brecht- Mutter Courage und ihre Kinder- Der
kaukasische Kreidekreis, Hollfeld 1973, p. 54. In this speech incidentally,
as pointed out by Hill (p. 111), 'withdrawing' is a mistranslation; 'moving
through' would be closer.
8 Giehse, p. 71.
9 Giehse, p. 72.
10 See Jendreiek, p. 175.
11 Brecht would have known from Korsch that the phrase was coined by
Hobbes in the seventeenth century. See Korsch, p. 57.
12 See Hecht, op. cit. (n. 45 to Chapter 3), p. 153.
14 See Wekwerth, p. 54.
15 See Jendreiek, pp. 160f.
16 George Steiner: The Death of Tragedy, pp. 353ff., quoted by Fuegi, p. 93,
with photo.
17 Riilicke-Weiler, p. 204, with photo.
18 Theaterarbeit, p. 300.
19 See Richard Beckley: 'Adaptation as a Feature of Brecht's Dramatic Tech-
nique', German Life & Letters, xv (1961-2), 274-84, esp. pp. 282f.
20 See Franz Norbert Mennemeier: 'Mother Courage and her Children', in
Peter Demetz (ed): Brecht. A Collection of Critical Essays, Englewood
Cliffs 1962, 138-50, p. 144.
21 Dickson, op. cit. (n. 5 above), p. 270.
22 A point well made by Mennemeier, op. cit. (n. 20 above), p. 140.
23 See Jendreiek~ p. 162.
24 See John J. White: 'A Note on Brecht and Behaviourism', Forum for Modern
Language Studies, vn (1971), 249-58, esp. p. 255.
25 'Es kommt ein Tag, da wird sich wenden I Das Blatt fiir uns, er ist nicht
fern. I Da werden wir, das Yolk, beenden I Den grossen Krieg der grossen
Herrn .. .'. Norddeutsche Zeitung, Schwerin, 10.11.51, quoted by Hennen-
berg, p. 511.
26 Riilicke-Weiler, op. cit. (n. 11 to Chapter 2), pp. 6£.
27 Volker, p. 293.
28 See Henning Rischbieter: Brecht, vol. 2, Velber 1966, pp. 27-9.
184 Notes
29 Ralph Brustein: The Theatre of Revolt, London, 1965, p. 273.
30 See E. Speidel: 'The Mute Person's Voice: Mutter Courage and her Daugh-
ter', German Life 8c Letters, xxm (1969-70), 332-9.
31 Pohl, pp. 22-4.
32 Examples from Pohl, p. 28.
33 Pohl, p. 25.
34 See Pohl, pp. 37f., with extract.
35 John Willett: 'The Poet Beneath the Skin', B]b. 2, 88-104, p. 102.
36 See Hinck, p. 42.
37 Eisler, p. 377 (footnote by Hans Bunge); Pohl, p. 63.
38 For details on the music in this section I am much indebted to Hennen-
berg's book. See also Dessau's essay Zur Courage-Musik, in Mat. C., 118-22,
and with further musical examples in Theaterarbeit, 274-80.
39 See Hinck, pp. 37f.
40 Wekwerth, pp. 384f.; Mat. C., 77.
41 Well described by Gray, pp. 123f.
44 See Wekwerth, pp. 86£.
45 Theaterarbeit, p. 297, with photo.
46 Giehse~ pp. 115-18, with photos.
47 Theaterarbeit, p. 317.
48 See Nick Wilkinson: 'Mutter Courage in Westafrika', B]b. 4, 117-24.
49 See the description by Paul Ryder Ryan in The Drama Review, XIX, 2 Oune
1975), 78-93. On Jerome Robbins' New York production, see Lee Baxandall:
'The Americanization of Bert Brecht', B]b. 1, 15()-(i7, esp. pp. 154-7.

1 Hennenberg, p. 452.
2 My scene titles are taken from a list of scenic elements in Brecht's work-
ing notes, printed in Mat. S., 86f.
3 See Reinhold Grimm: 'Bertolt Brecht: Der gute Mensch von Sezuan', in
Manfred Brauneck (ed): Das deutsche Drama vom Expressionismus bis
zur Gegenwart, Bamberg 1972, 168-73, esp. p. 169; and Henning Risch-
bieter: Brecht, vol. 2, Velber 1966, p. 39.
4 See Hill, pp. 125f.
5 Hill, p. 125, following other American scholars.
6 See Hinck, pp. 85-7.
7 Renata Berg-Pan: 'Mixing Old and New Wisdom: The "Chinese" Sources
of Brecht's Kaukasischer Kreidekreis and Other Works', German Quarterly,
1975, 204-28, pp. 209f.
8 Willett, pp. 96f., 237.
9 Berg-Pan, op. cit. (n. 7 above), p. 210.
10 Much of this section is based on Antony Tatlow: 'China oder Chima?',
B]b. 1,27-47,esp.pp.44-6.
11 Klotz, p. 19.
12 Klotz, p. 18.
Notes 185
13 After Friedrich Engels: Socialism: Utopian and Scientific, Special Intro-
duction to the English edition of 1892.
14 Klotz, pp. 19f.
17 See Miiller, op. cit. (n. 4 to Chapter 3), p. 62.
19 See Henning Rischbieter: Brecht, vol. 2, Velber 1966 •. p. 37.
20 See Karl-Heinz Schmidt: 'Zur Gestaltung antagonistischer Konflikte bei
Brecht und Kaiser', in Mat. S., 109-33, esp. p. 117.
21 On the sex-bound elements see John Fuegi: 'The Alienated Woman:
Brecht's The Good Person of Setzuan', in Mews and Knust, op. cit. (n. 13
to Chapter 3), 190-6.
22 See Walter H. Sokel: 'Brecht's Split Characters and His Sense of the
Tragic', in Demetz, op. cit. (n. 20 to Chapter 5), 127-37, esp. p. 128.
23 See Mayer, p. 179.
24 See Klotz, pp. 15f.
25 Klotz, p. 16.
26 Sokel. op. cit. (n. 22 above), p. 129.
27 Sokel, p. 130.
28 See Mayer, pp. 165-70.
29 Willett, p. 91.
30 See on this song Hinck, p. 43; Jendreiek, p. 224; Willett, op. cit. (n. 39 to
Chapter 5), p. 90.
31 See Hinck, pp. 49-51.
32 See H. G. Huettich: 'Zwischen Klassik und Kommerz. Brecht in Los
Angeles', B]b. 4, 125-37.
33 See Wendt, op. cit. (n. 55 to Chapter 3), p. 11.
34 See Mayer, p. 173.
35 Fuegi, pp. 135f.
36 Fuegi, pp. 136f.
37 See Pohl, p. 32.
38 This section is very dependent on Hennenberg's book; see also Mat. S.,
145-53.

1 Bertolt Brecht in Britain (n. 56 to Chapter 3), p. 92.
2 Based on Angelika Hurwicz's narration in her photographic record of the
Berlin production (n. 40 to Chapter 3; the narration is not included in
Mat. K.).
3 See Leiser, op. cit. (n. 6 to Chapter 5), pp. 56-8.
4 Berg-Pan, op. cit. (n. 7 to Chapter 6), pp. 215f.
5 Ritchie, pp. 12f.
6 Ritchie, p. 17.
7 See Leiser, op. cit. (n. 6 to Chapter 5), p. 59.
8 As an anecdote in Miiller and Semmer (n. 14 to Chapter 1), p. 56, has
him claiming.
186 Notes
9 Ritchie, p. 17.
10 See Leiser, op. cit. (n. 6 to Chapter 5), p. 85.
11 Ritchie, pp. 52£.
12 Qayum Qureshi: Pessimismus und Fortschrittsglaube bei Bert Brecht,
Cologne and Vienna 1971, p. 133.
13 Fuegi, p. 147.
16 See Fuegi, pp. 147£.; and the same author's 'The Caucasian Chalk Circle
in Performance', B]b. 1, 137-49, p. 140.
17 Riilicke-Weiler, p. 176 ·-note from rehearsal of 6.2.54.
18 See Qureshi, op. cit. (n. 12 above), pp. 145-7.
19 Eric Bentley: 'An Un-American Chalk Circle?', Tulane Drama Review,
no. 32 (summer 1966}, 64-77, p. 67.
20 Kesting, op. cit. (n. 1 to Chapter 4), p. 123.
21 Ritchie, p. 28.
22 Ritchie, p. 26.
23 Kesting, op. cit. (n. 1 to Chapter 4), p. 109.
24 See Hill, pp. 136£.
25 See Robert Spaethling: 'Zum Verstandnis der Grusche in Brechts Der
kaukasische Kreidekreis', Die Unterrichtspraxis, 1971 (4), 74-81, on the
analogy with this 'Mad Meg' drawn by Brecht (Mat. K., 32).
27 Hennenberg, p. 89.
28 Quoted by Bentley, op. cit. (n. 19 above), p. 71.
29 Wekwerth, p. 19.
30 See Qureshi, op. cit. (n. 12), p. 152.
31 See W. A. ]. Steer: 'The Thematic Unity of Brecht's Der kaukasische
Kreidekreis', German Life & Letters, xx1 (1967-8), 1-10, esp. p. 3.
32 On this, and Azdak in general, see ]iirgen Jacobs: 'Die Rechtspflege des
Azdak', Euphorion, LXII (1968), 421-4.
33 Bentley, op. cit. (n. 19), pp. 69£.
34 See the collective work Bertolt Brecht- Leben und Werk, Berlin 1963,
p. 143; and T. M. Holmes: 'Descrying the Dialectic .. .', Journal of Euro-
pean Studies, VII (1977), 95-106.
35 Benjamin, op. cit. (n. 2 to Chapter 1), p. 115.
36 Eisler, p. 78.
37 A. Kats, quoted by Glade, op. cit. (n. 51 to Chapter 3), p. 171.
38 On this rejection of Utopian anticipation see Ludwig, pp. 148-50.
39 See Fuegi, p. 149.
40 Ritchie, p. 25. Brecht incorporated an English version in his journal (Aj.,
1, 548: 24.11.42).
41 On the language of Azdak, and of the Singer and the corporal, see Pohl,
esp. pp. 12£., 26, 39, 138£., 144.
42 See Hinck, pp. 106£.
43 See Hennenberg, p. 380.
Notes 187
45 On the music to the play see Hennenberg, pp. 216-23, 248£., 329-35,
chap. 6 passim, pp. 378-80; and Paul Dessau: 'Zur Kreidekreis-Musik', in
Mat. K., 87-94.
47 Karl von Appen: 'Uber das Biihnenbild', Mat. K., 95-100, p. 96.
49 See Fuegi, pp. 15lf.
50 Wekwerth, p. 16.
51 On masks see Hurwicz, op. cit. (n. 40 to Chapter 3), p. 4; Riilicke-Weiler,
p. 216, with photos; and Joachim Tenschert: 'Uber die Verwendung von
Masken', Mat. K., 101-12.

1 Gray, pp. 176-81.
2 Eisler, p. 139.
3 Ronald Bryden: 'Pop goes Imperialism', Observer Review, 7.3.71.
4 See A. D. White: 'Brecht's Quest for a Democratic Theatre', 1"heatre
Quarterly, no. 5 Oan 1972), 65-70, esp. p. 70.
Index
BRECHT'S WORKS
Anmerkungen zur 'Dreigroschenoper', 33 Epilog der Wissenschaftler, 63
Anmerkungen zur 'Massnahme', 47 Erfahrungen, 43
Anmerkungen zur Oper 'Aufstieg und Fall Eulenspiegel as Judge, 162
der Stadt Mahagonny', 31, 47 Exception and the Rule, The, 155
Antigone, 11
Anweisungen an die Schauspieler, 44 Fear and Misery of the Third Reich, 9,
Arbeitsjournal, 8, 13, 16-19, 2lf., 25, 30£., 66
Hf., 37-42, 47, 49, 53, 62, 73f., Five Difficulties in writing the Truth, 61,
76, 96, 98, 104, 123, 129, 150, 159, 62, 160
161, 164 Fixierung des Raums bei induktiver
Aufbau der Figur, 44 Methode, 48
Augsburg Chalk Circle, The, 149, 162
Aus einem Brief an einen Schauspieler, Gesang aus der OpiumhOhle, Der, 133
104 Good Person of Szechwan, The, 6, 9, 16,
33, 37, 48-50, 52, 66, 73, 95, 101,
Baal, 2, 28 113-39. 153, 156-8, 171
Ballad of the Pirates, 105
Betrachtung uber die Schwierigkeiten des Hangmen also die (Brecht/Lang), 10
epischen Theaters, 25 How much is Iron?, 9
Bible, The, 1
In the Jungle of Cities, 4, 28
Caucasian Chalk Circle, The, 6, 10, 13, Individuum und Masse, 37
30, 33, 37, 39, 49, 74, 101, 103, Interpolated Scenes, 43
120, 126, 140--71
Coriolan, 46 Karl Valentin, 24
Katzgraben-Notate, 35, 51
Dansen, 9 Kraft und Schwiiche der Utopie, 22
Days of the Commune, The, 11 Kuhle Wampe (Brecht/Dudow), 7, 43
Dekoration, 47 Kurze Beschreibung einer neuen Technik
Dia le ktik, 17 der Schauspielkunst, 41, 44
Dialog uber Schauspielkunst, 43
Dreigroschenprozess, Der, 73 Legend of the Dead Soldier, 2
Drums in the Night, 2, 4, 40 Lehrstucke, 6, 132
Duchess of Malfi, The, 10 Lernende ist wichtiger als die Lehre, Der,
15
Einige Irrtumer uber die Spielweise des Life of Edward II, 4, 53
Berliner Ensembles, 51 Life of Galileo, 9, 11, 30, 33f., 37, 45,
Einzige Zuschauer fur meine Stucke, Der, 48f., 53-84, 91, 97, 120, 124, 129,
5 132, 154, 159-65
190 Index
Lindberghflug, Der, 132 Schweyk in the Second World War, 10,
Literarisierung der Buhnen, 48 33, 37, 159, 164
Literatur wird durchforscht werden, Die. Seiiora Carrar's Rifles, 9, 44, 63, 96
36 Seven Deadly Sins. The, 7
Lohnt es sich, vom Amateurtheater zu Short Organum, 21, 24, 26, 28f., 32, 34,
reden!. 28, 31 41, 45, 49
Looking for the New and Old, 37, 44 Situation und Verhalten, 36
Spielleitung Brechts, Die, 49
Man is Man. 5, 29, 40, 94, 128£., 149,
167 Tagebucher, 3-5,13-15,26,28,34,36-8
Manual of Piety, 2 Theaterarbeit (Brecht et al.), 33, 46, 49,
Mask of Evil. The, 21, 129 51
Materialwert, 35 Thesen uber die Aufgabe der Einfuhlung,
Measures Taken, The, 6, 34, 128 31
Mehr guten Sport, 38 Thesen zur Theorie des Uberbaus, 19
Messingkauf Dialogues, 9, 17, 20£., 24, Thought in the Works of the Classics, 15
27, .~Of.• 39£., 42, 44 Threepenny Opera, The, 4, 6, 40, 43, 48,
Mother, The. 7f., 26, 53, 60, 62 76, 105
Mother Courage and her Children, 9, 11, To Those Born Later. 9
13, 24. 30, 32, 34, 37, 39, 42, 44, Trial of Lucullus, The, 9, 12
47f., 51, 63, 66, 85-112, 120, 122, Tui-Novel, 8, 12
128, 133, 135, 149, 153f.. 156, Turandot, 12, 61
158£., 165-6
Mr Julius Caesar's Business Deals, 8, 99 Uber das Theater, das wir meinen, 24
Mr Puntila and his Servant Matti, 10£., Uber das Theater der Chinesen, 45
21, 33, 40, 128 Uber den Gestus. 111
Musterung der Motive junger Intellek- Uber den Gewohnheitspatriotismus, 60
tueller, 22 Uber den 'Untergang des Theaters', 38
Uber die Eignung zum Zuschauer, 25
Notizen zur Arbeit, 42 Uber die Moskauer Prozesse, 22
Uber die Volksbuhne, 25
Of Swimming in Lakes and Rivers, 15 Uber eine neue Dramatik, 25, 39
On everyday Theatre, 40 Uber experimentelles Theater, 62, 70
On Kant's Definition of Marriage, 155 Uber rationellen und emotionellen Stand-
Ovation fur Shaw. 26, 37 punkt, 31
Uber sozialistischen Realismus, 20
Petty Bourgeois' Wedding, The, 3, 33 Unpolitische Briefe, 98
Praktisches zur Expressionismusdebatte,
20 Vergnugungstheater oder Lehrtheater,
Prolog zur amerikanischen Auffuhrung, 63 26f .. 38, 47
Visions of Simone Machard, The, 10
Refugees' Conversations. 20, 23, 69, 71, VolkstUmlichkeit und Realismus, 20
98, 102 Vorrede zu 'Macbeth', 39
Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, The, 10. 160
Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny, Ware Liebe, Die, 113
6, 31, 47, 121 Warum soli mein Name genannt werden?
Roundheads and Peakheads, 8, 160 18
Weniger Gips, 43
Saint Joan of the Stockyards, 7, 16, 36,
62, 97, 124 Zeichen und Symbole, 47
Schauspielkunst, 44 Zur A.sthetik des Dramas, 33
GENERAL INDEX
Absurd, Theatre of the. 37 Brecht, Eugen Berthold (Bertolt): life,
Acting, 43-7 1-13; character, 13f.; thought, 15-
Adaptation, 35, 96, 173 23; theory of theatre, 24-35;
Aeschylus, 152 characteristics of his dramas, 35-
Agitprop theatre, 6, 45 42; theatrical practice, 42-52;
Aman, Rose Maria. 1 influence, 52, 140; children, 3-5,
America, see United States 7, 11
Apolda, 131 Brecht, Sofie (mother), 1
Appen, Karl von, 168f. Brechtian Theatre, Brecht-Theatre, 4, 35,
Aristotle, Aristotelian thought, 34, 41, 42, 51f.• 107, 172
59, 68, 72, 79 Brennen, Arnott, 3f., 120
Atomic bomb, 63f. Brown, Thomas K., 46
Aufricht, Ernst Josef, 6 Bruegel, Pieter, the Elder, 82, 158
Augsburg, 1-4, 149 Bruno, Giordano, 60, 64, 66
Austin, Texas: Bertold Brecht Memorial Bryden, Ronald, 171
Guerilla Theater, 52 Buchner, Georg, 39, 131
Austria, 11, 24 Buckow, 13
Azerbaijan, 150, 168 Buckwitz, Harry, 150
Burkhard, Paul, 85
Burri. Emil, 5
Bacon, Francis, 65, 173
Busch, Ernst, 6, 53, 66, 103, 140, 161,
Balzac. Honore de. 20
165
Banholzer, Paula, 1, 3
Busch, Wilhelm, 124
Bau Dschong, see Pao DschOng
Baudelaire, Charles, 38
B<1varia. 2, 102 California, 53, 155
Becher, Johannes R., 12, 51 Capitalism, 15f.• 18, 2lf., 25, 27, 63, 66f.,
Beckett, Samuel, 34, 172f. 94-7, 99, 123, 125, 128f.• 131, 138,
Benjamin, Walter, 3, 8, 164 163
Bennewitz, Fritz, 52 Chaplin, Charlie, 24, 157
Berghaus, Ruth, 52 Chicago, 4, 10, 15
Bergner, Elisabeth, 10 China. l22f.. 139, 168, 171; Chinese
Berlau, Ruth, 7, 9-11, 13, 50, 108 thought, 21; Chinese theatre, 38,
Berlin, 3-8, 11, 22, 29, 47, 51; Deutsches 45. 48. 123
Theater, 4, 11f., 85, 93, 107; Christianity, 21, 10lf., 107, 123, 135,
Schaubuhne, 52; Theater am 154-7
Schiffbauerdamm, 6 Chur, 11
Berliner Ensemble, 11f., 42, 46, 48, 50-3, Church, Catholic, 60, 64, 68, 70-76
66, 83, 97, 103, 105-7, 111, 113, Class struggle, Bourgeoisie, Feudalism.
135, 138, 140, 152, 16lf .• 168 Proletariat, 1-3, 5-7, 10, 12, 15-18,
Besson, Benne, 12,49, 53,113 20-2, 25-8, 31, 33f.• 36f .• 48, 62,
Beverly Hills, 11, 53 64-6, 73-5, 124, 152, 154f., 161
Biafra. 112 Claude!, Paul, 6, 34
Bible, the, 35, 79, 81, 104, 120, 136, Clausewitz, Carl von, 94
148, 156 Cologne, 53
Bloch, Ernst, 20 Comedy, 32f., 102f., 151
Bohemia, 92 Commedia deli'Arte, 135
Bonhoeffer, Dietrich, 132 Communism, Communist parties, 3, 5-12,
Bourbon dynasty, 92 15f .• 18-23, 27, 31, 36, 62, 66, 74,
Bourgeoisie, see Class struggle 97, 132, 163f.
Braunbock, Carola, 111 Composite work of art, 47f.
Brecht, Berthold Friedrich (father), 1 Copenhagen, 7
192 Index
Copernicus, 60, 64, 75, 91 Ferdinand II, Grand Duke of Florence, 74
Cosimo II, Grand Duke of Florence, 74 Feuchtwanger, Lion, 2, 5, 10
Costume, 48, 82, 108, 169f. Feudalism, see Class struggle
Council for a Democratic Germany, 11 Feuerbach, Ludwig Andreas, 60
Counter, Reformation, 72 Finland, 10, 113
Craig, Gordon, 49 Flaubert, Gustave, 38
Critical attitude, 25-7, 31-4, 44, 59f. Florence, 67, 7lf.
Forke, Alfred, 123
Dadaism, 26 Fradkin, Ilya, 164
Damiani, Luciano, 135 France, 52
Dance, 49 Franco, 62
Darwin, Charles, Darwinism, 63 Frankfurt am Main, 150
Delacroix, Eugene, 13 Freud, Sigmund, 60, 109
Demonstration on stage, 32, 38, 41, 45f., Frisch, Max, 52, 121
149-52 Fuegi, John, 102, 107, 151
Denmark, 7-10, 53, 113
Design, 47f., 82, 107f., 168f. Galilei, Galileo, 20, 60, 62, 64, 66, 7lf.,
Dessau, Paul, 11f., 85, 105f., 113, 138-40, 80f.
168 Gay, John, 6£
Dialectical theatre, 18f., 34f., 37 Georgia (USSR), 150
Dialectics, 17-20, 29, 33, 36f., 95 Germany, 1, 3, 6, 8, 11, 15, 17f., 21, 61£.,
Dickson, Keith A., 92 73, 91, 150, 163; German Demo-
Diderot, Denis, 20, 45 cratic Republic (East Germany),
Direction, 49, 5lf., 108-12 12f., 26, 52, 67, 164; German
Distancing, Verfremdung, v-effect, 26, Federal Republic (West Germany),
28-33, 43, 45-8, 92, 106, 165, 171 12, 5lf.
Diiblin Alfred, 5, 10, 36, 120 Gestus, gestic language, 35, 41, 45, 77,
Dresden, 120 82, 108, 121, 136-8
Diirrenmatt, Friedrich, 40, 121 Giehse, Therese, 85, 93, llOf.
Gilbert, William Schwenk, 105
Economics on stage, 15, 28, 31, 33f., 37, Goebbels, Joseph, 62
39 Goering, Hermann, 170
Eddington, A. S., 61 Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von, 5, 12, 70,
Egypt, 160 104, 120f., 131, 162, 173
Einstein, Albert, 61, 64, 70 Gray, Ronald, 34, 96, 98f.
Eisenstein, Sergei, 15, 39 Great Britain, 52, 64f., 140
Eisler, Hanns, 6, 8, 12, 70, 83, 104, 140, Grimm, Reinhold, 120
164, 171 Grimmelshausen, Hans Jacob Christoph
Elegance, 38, 47, 77, 82 von, 85, 104
Emotion on stage, 3lf., 38, 44, 95f .• 172 Guillemin, Bernard, 36
Empathy, Identification, 28, 31-3, 38, 43- Gunga Din (film), 31
5, 67 Gustav Adolf. King of Sweden, 92
Engel, Erich, 4, 22f., 30, 53
Engels, Friedrich, 17-19, 73, 124 Habsburg dynasty, 92
Enjoyment of theatre. 24f., 27, 41, 47 Hahn, Otto, 62
Epic theatre, 25, 35, 39, 91, 132-4, 152£., Hall, Peter. 52
165, 172 Hamburg, 135
Ernte, Die, 1 Hasek, Jaroslav, 10, 33, 102
Esslin, Martin, 22, 120, 172 Hauptmann, Elisabeth, 4f., 7, 53
Eth~. artistic, 37£., 52 Hauptmann, Gerhart, 12, 25, 35, 162
Expressionism, 3, 20, 24, 27, 121 Hebbel, Friedrich, 36
Hecht, Werner, 42, 50
Farquhar, George, 12 Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich, 17, 36,
Fascism, 21, 132, 152 41, 45, 152
Index 193
Heisenberg, Werner Karl, 61 Lang, Fritz, 10
Helsinki, 10 Language of the plays, 35f., 78-81, 101-
Helvetius, Claude-Adrien, 60 5, 135-8, 165£.
Hesse, Hermann, 21 Lao Tzu (Lao Tse), 15, 21
Hinck, Walter, 135, 150 Laughton, Charles, 11, 29, 45£., 53, 68,
Hindemith, Paul, 6 74, 81-3
Hiob, Hanne, 4 Leiser, Peter, 151
Hippocratic oath, 65 Lenin, Leninism, 7, 17, 19, 60, 171
Hiroshima, 64 Lenya, Lotte, 6
Historicisation, 30, 44 Lenz, J. M. R., 12
Hitler, Adolf, 3, 7-12, 18, 2lf., 31, 33, Lessing, Gotthold Ephraim, 104, 149
44, 62, 64, 71, 92, 98, 160, 163f., Lessons of a play, 27f.
166 Li Hsing-dao (Li Hsing Tao), 148
Hobbes, Thomas, 65 Lidingo, 9
Hobson, Harold, 66 Littlewood, Joan, 52
Hofmannsthal, Hugo von, 13, 36 London, 8, 140, 149; Royal Court Theatre,
Holbach, Paul Hemi Dietrich, Baron d', 52
60 Lorre, Peter, 6
Hollywood, IOf. Losey,Joseph,82,84
Holmes, T. M., 163 Lugano, 7
Horace, 69 Luk~cs, Georg, 20
House Committee on Un-American Luther, Martin, 35, 79, 104, 106, 125,
Activities, 11, 66 173
House, Humphry, 34 Lutz, Regine, Ill
Hungary, 92 Luxemburg, Rosa, 164
Hurwicz, Angelika, 46, 101, 140, 158
McCarthy, Joseph R., 11
Identification, see Empathy Mach, Ernst, 36
Illusion on stage, 32, 43 Macintosh, Joan, 112
Industrial Revolution, 64, 70 Magdeburg, 92
Inquisition, 72 Mai Lan-fang, 45
Ionesco, Eug~ne, 172 Mann, Heimich, 10
Italy, 20. 52, 73f., 84, 91 Mann. Thomas, 5, 10
Marlowe, Christopher, 4, 53
Jesuit theatre, 24 Marx, Karl, Marxian thought, Marxism,
Jesus, 95, 106, 156, 173 5, 7f., 12, 15-27, 30f., 33f., .37, 40,
Jewish music, 168 65f., 73£., 92, 95-97, 125£., 128,
Joan of Arc, Saint, 72, 76 13lf., 159£., 164, 171-3
Joseph, Saint, 156 Mary, Blessed Virgin, Saint, 156
Masks, 32, 48, 169f.
Kaiser, Georg, 24 Mayakovsky, Vladimir, 29, 163
Kant, Immanuel, 123, 125, 131, 155 Mayer, Hans, 102, 121, 127, 131, 151
Kapp Putsch, 3 Mencius, 123
Kasperltheater, 35 Mexico, 10
Kausala, 10 Meyerhold, Vsevolod, 8, 29, 47
Kilian, Isot, 13 Michaelis, Karin, 7
Kipling, Rudyard, 35, 105f., 133 Milan, 135
Kipphardt, Heinar, 63 Milhaud, Darius, 6
Klabund (Alfred Henschke), 149 Mo Di (Mo Tzu, M@ Ti), 21, 123, 152, 173
Kleist Prize, 4 Model, Modellbuch, 11, 50
Korsch, Karl, 8, 17, 19, 65, 74 Moli~re, 12, 33
Kortner, Fritz, 10 Montage, 30
Kraus, Karl, 7 Montaigne, Michel de, 61
Kustow, Michael, 52 Moscow, 8, 10, 19, 29, 45, 140
194 Index
Munich, 2--4, 85, 110; Munich agreement, Raimund, Ferdinand, 120
9. 62 Rainer, Luise, 140, 159
Music in the theatre, -47, 49, 83f .• 105f., Red Flag, The, 132
138£ .• 168 Rehearsal, 43£., -46, 49-51
Mystery plays, 24 Reichel, Kithe (Katrin), 13, 111, 113
Reinhardt, Max, 4, 149
Naivety, 30 Relativity, 5
Narration; narrative techniques. 39£., Resistance (Germany 1933-1945), 8, 61£.
152f. Richelieu, Cardinal, 92
National Socialism (Nazism). 2f., 6, 11, Ritchie, J. M., 149
21, 61, 66, 73, 98, 107. 159, 163 Rome, 73
Naturalism, 24-6, 28 Rotterdam, 108
Nazism, see National Socialism Riilicke (Riilicke-Weiler). Kithe, 13, 35,
Neher, Carola, 5£., 8, 149 45
Neher, Caspar, 1, 8, 11, 47, 53 Runeberg. Johan Ludvig, 85
Netherlands. 64£., 92 Russia, 26; see also USSR
Neues Deutschland, 13
New York, 11, 140, 149; Broadway, 10£.; Salzburg Festival, 11
Performance Group, 101, 112; Samson-Korner, Paul, 5
Theater Union, 8 Samurai, 170
Newton, Isaac, 60 Santa Monica, 10, 135, 140
Nietzsche, Friedrich, 14, 133 Sartre, Jean-Paul, 172
NO plays, 6f .• 48 Schall, Ekkehard, 46, 83, 138
Northfield, Minn., 140 Schiller. Friedrich, 27, 70, 72, 135
Norway, 10 Schlegel, A. W., 121
Nukha, 150 Schumacher, Ernst. 65
Science, 59-66, 70£., 76, 78, 82
Seghers, Anna, 12
Oh, What a lovely War/, 52
Sensuality. 68f.
Oppenheimer, J. Robert, 63
Shakespeare, William. 1, 12, 36, 39, -43£ .•
Oriental theatre, 38 52,67, 70, 76,81,92, 121,152
Oriental thought, 15, 21
Shaw. George Bernard, 7, 26, 35, 37
Simonov, Konstantin, 165
Palitzsch, Peter, 12 Singapore. 96
Palm, Kurt, 48, 108 Socialist Realism. 19f.
Pao Dschong. 149 Sophocles, 11, 43
Parable play, 76, 120-2, 132, 149 Soviet Union, see U.S.S.R.
Paris. 7, 13, 140 Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands,
Parmet, Simon, 47 18
Pavlov, Ivan, 97 Spanish Civil War. 9, -44, 62
Picasso. Pablo, 30, 96 Stalin, Josef, Stalinism, 8, 17-19, 22, 29,
Pinter, Harold, 172 16-4
Pirandello, l uigi, 6, 29, 33, 127f. Standard Oil Company, 97
Piscator, Erwin, 4. 8, 15, 25, 29, 47, 112, Stanislavsky, Constantin, 29, 32
123, 149, 172 Steffin, Margarete, 7, 9f.
Planchon, Roger. 52 Stein, Peter, 52
Plato, 20 Steiner, George, 96
Poland, 22, 44. 92, 102, 150 Sternberg, Fritz, 25
Productivity, 22, 40, 156-65 Stevenson, Robert Louis, 128
Proletariat, see Class struggle Stockholm, 9
Protagonists, 36£., 40, 67-71, 93-7 Strassmann, F.• 62
Ptolemy, Ptolemaic system, 60, 75, 80 Strehler, Giorgio, 52
Strindberg, August, 130
Quantum theory, 20 Strittmatter, Erwin, 51
Index 195
Svendborg, 7 Wallenstein, Albrecht Wenzel Eusebius
Sweden, 9f., 85, 101, 113 von, 92
Switzerland, 10f. War, 92-100
Synge, J. M.• 96 Webster, John, 10
Wedekind,Frank,2,35
Tatlow, Antony, 123 Weigel, Helene, 5-7. 11, 13, 43f., 46, 48,
Tauber, Richard, 8 52, 85, 95f., 101, 105, 109-11, 140;
Tchaikovsky, Peter, 168 her parents, 7
Theatre of cruelty. 27 Weill, Kurt, 6, 10
Thirty Years War, 91f., 104, 149 Weimar, Deutsches Nationaltheater, 52
Thurii, 7 Weise, Christian, 106
Tillis, 150 Weiss, Peter, 172
Toller, Ernst, 20 Weisse, Michael, 106
Topol, 84 Wekwerth, Manfred, 12, 27, 42, 49, 52,
Tragedy, 32, 34, 39 107, 110, 140
Tretiakov, Sergei, 8, 29 Werfel, Franz, 5
Tuscany, 72 Wilder, Thornton, 39
Tynan, Kenneth, 52 Wilkinson, Nick, 112
Willett, John, 3
Ulbricht, Walter, 12 Wolf, Friedrich, 123
Ullstein Verlag, 5 Wordsworth, William, 138
United States of America, 4, 7. 9f., 12, World War I, 2f.
20, 52, 63, 66, 71, 113 World War II. 20f., 64, 165
U.S.S.R., 6-9, 13, 19-22, 29, 52, 63, 67, Wort, Das, 8
150f., 163f. Wuolijoki, Hella, 10
Wuppertal, 133
Valentin, Karl, 3f., 24, 102
V-effect, Vedremdung, see Distancing Yin and yang, 21, 130, 152
Venice, 72
Verlaine, Paul, 1 Zhdanov, A. A., 19
Vienna, 7, 120 Zoff, Marianne, 4
Vilar, Jean, 52 Zola, Emile, 38
Virtue, 69, 98-101, 122-9 Zuckmayer, Carl, 4, 128
Vladivostok, 10 Zurich, 11; Schauspielhaus, 10, 53, 85,
93, 113, 135
Wagner, Richard, 47
Waley, Arthur, 123

Brecht

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Brecht

Uploaded by

Document Information

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Brecht

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

BERTOLT BRECHT'S GREAT PLAYS

First published 1978 by

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

This book is sold subject

2 Brecht's Ways of Thought 15

3 Theory and Practice of Brechtian Theatre 24

4 The Life of Galileo 53

5 Mother Courage and her Children 85

6 The Good Person of Szechwan 113

7 The Caucasian Chalk Circle 140

In 193 7, moved by the Spanish Civil War (though he refused to go any

Dialectics here is a means of analysis allowing the common interests of

Brecht's early theory of theatre is consciously one-sided, in rebellion

From the outset Brecht turns against the spectator's self-identification

(r) THE PLOT

Scene 1 [1609]: 'Galileo Galilei, teacher of Mathematics at Padua, deter-

Scene 4 [summary of activities of 1610-15]: 'Galileo has exchanged the

Scene 5 [unhistorical]: 'Undaunted even by the Plague Galileo Continues

Scene 7 [5 March 1616; historical events of 26 February to 5 March]. 'But

Scene 8: 'A Conversation.' A little monk with astronomical leanings comes

Scene 10 [unhistorical]: 'During the following Decade Galileo's Teach-

Scene 11 [1633; historically 11 October 1632]: 'The Inquisition Sum-

Scene 14 [1633-42]: 'Galileo Galilei lives in a Country House near Flor-

Scene 15 [unhistorical]: '1637. Galileo's Book, the 'Discorsi', crosses the

(11) GALILEO, SCIENCE AND THE BOURGEOIS ERA

The play is unusual in its concentration on the content of science. As-

Knowledge of the nature of things, so greatly and so ingeniously

even invented a destructive weapon. The first criticism- Harold Hobson's

{III) GALILEO: SPLIT CHARACTER

Comic elements provide an important key to Galileo. He is an intellectual

No one's virtue is complete:

Such is Brecht's explanation of the deception with the telescope. And

(IV) THE SOCIAL WORLD OF THE PLAY

(v) THE STRUCTURE AND ARTISTRY OF THE PLAY

In this play language is first and foremost a means of characterisation.

GALILEO: Are you accusing me of fraud?

(vn) THE PLAY ON THE STAGE

(1) THE PLOT

Scene 1: The businesswoman Anna Fierling, known by the name of

Scene 4: The Song of the Great Capitulation.

Scene 6: Beginning of prosperity, but dumb Kattrin is mutilated.

Scene 7: Mother Courage at the height of her business career.

Scene 8: A peace threatens to ruin Mother Courage's business. Her

Scene 10: Still on the road.

Scene 11: Dumb Kattrin saves the city of Halle.

Scene 12: Courage goes on her way.

(II) THE CHRONICLE

In many ways the structure of this play is comparable with that of

(III) WAR AND MARXISM

The starkest point of the presentation of war is at the beginning of scene

A day will come when things will take a

Brecht rejected the idea of an epilogue pointing the message on stylistic

(IV) GOODNESS AND VIRTUE

(v) LANGUAGE AND DUMBSHOW

(vi) THE SONGS

In performance the 'Courage Song', which in the text appears within

(vu) THE SCENIC INTERPRETATION OF THE PLAY

(1) THE PLOT

Prologue: 'Difficulties of a Believer in Getting Satisfaction for his Gods.' 2

Scene 1: 'Quick Ruin of a Livelihood by Goodness.' A small tobacconist's.